Paper:
Development of Leg Rehabilitation Assistance
Keiko Homma, Osamu Fukuda and Yoshihiko Nagata
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba East 1-2-1, Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8564 Japan
We propose leg rehabilitation assistance based on a new method. Many elderly temporarily recovering from disease or injury suffer functional deficit and depression because of the lack of appropriate longerterm rehabilitation, suggesting the need for assistance that individuals can use on their own over long enough periods. Such assistance must be safe, light-weight, and apply no psychological burden on users. We propose parallel-wire multi-degree-of-freedom leg rehabilitation assistance. We report the design and trial production of an experimental 2-degree-of-freedom system having flexion and extension for the knee and hip and experiments conducted with a test dummy in knee and hip flexion and extension. Our results certain training actions are possible based on the proposed system.
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Copyright© 2002 by Fuji Technology Press Ltd. and Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. All right reserved.