Design and Optimization of Lower Limb Rehabilitation Exoskeleton with a Multiaxial Knee Joint

Abstract

To facilitate rehabilitation training for patients, we proposed the implementation of an anthropomorphic exoskeleton structure that incorporates a variable instantaneous center of rotation (ICR). This design considers the variability in knee ICR among individuals, resulting from the irregular form of the human knee joint, and leverages a double-degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) five-bar mechanism to adapt to these differences. The walking gait of the human lower limb and the corresponding knee ICR were measured and calculated using an optical 3D motion capture system. The optimal dimension parameters of the five-bar mechanism were then obtained through the optimization of human movement position inputs and rod length constraints to minimize the error in knee ICR, gait angle, and ankle trajectory between the human and the exoskeleton. Finally, we established an exoskeleton prototype to conduct relevant experimental tests. The experiment results showed that the average errors of knee ICR trajectory, hip angle, knee angle, and ankle trajectory were 5.52 × 10−4 m, 0.010 rad, 0.014 rad, and 1.57 × 10−3 m, respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that the exoskeleton’s movement trajectory was close to the human’s, reducing the human–mechanism interaction force and improving patient comfort during rehabilitation training.