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Design and Feasibility Study of a Leg-exoskeleton Assistive Wheelchair Robot with Tests on Gluteus Medius Muscles

The muscles of the lower limbs directly influence leg motion, therefore, lower limb muscle exercise is important for persons living with lower limb disabilities. This paper presents a medical assistive robot with leg exoskeletons for locomotion and leg muscle exercises. It also presents a novel peda...

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Autores principales: Huang, Gao, Ceccarelli, Marco, Huang, Qiang, Zhang, Weimin, Yu, Zhangguo, Chen, Xuechao, Mai, Jingeng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6387381/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30696120
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s19030548
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author Huang, Gao
Ceccarelli, Marco
Huang, Qiang
Zhang, Weimin
Yu, Zhangguo
Chen, Xuechao
Mai, Jingeng
author_facet Huang, Gao
Ceccarelli, Marco
Huang, Qiang
Zhang, Weimin
Yu, Zhangguo
Chen, Xuechao
Mai, Jingeng
author_sort Huang, Gao
collection PubMed
description The muscles of the lower limbs directly influence leg motion, therefore, lower limb muscle exercise is important for persons living with lower limb disabilities. This paper presents a medical assistive robot with leg exoskeletons for locomotion and leg muscle exercises. It also presents a novel pedal-cycling actuation method with a crank-rocker mechanism. The mechanism is driven by a single motor with a mechanical structure that ensures user safety. A control system is designed based on a master-slave control with sensor fusion method. Here, the intended motion of the user is detected by pedal-based force sensors and is then used in combination with joystick movements as control signals for leg-exoskeleton and wheelchair motions. Experimental data is presented and then analyzed to determine robotic motion characteristics as well as the assistance efficiency with attached electromyogram (EMG) sensors. A typical muscle EMG signal analysis shows that the exercise efficiency for EMG activated amplitudes of the gluteus medius muscles approximates a walking at speed of 3 m/s when cycling at different speeds (i.e., from 16 to 80 r/min) in a wheelchair. As such, the present wheelchair robot is a good candidate for enabling effective gluteus medius muscle exercises for persons living with gluteus medius muscle disabilities.
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spelling pubmed-63873812019-02-26 Design and Feasibility Study of a Leg-exoskeleton Assistive Wheelchair Robot with Tests on Gluteus Medius Muscles Huang, Gao Ceccarelli, Marco Huang, Qiang Zhang, Weimin Yu, Zhangguo Chen, Xuechao Mai, Jingeng Sensors (Basel) Article The muscles of the lower limbs directly influence leg motion, therefore, lower limb muscle exercise is important for persons living with lower limb disabilities. This paper presents a medical assistive robot with leg exoskeletons for locomotion and leg muscle exercises. It also presents a novel pedal-cycling actuation method with a crank-rocker mechanism. The mechanism is driven by a single motor with a mechanical structure that ensures user safety. A control system is designed based on a master-slave control with sensor fusion method. Here, the intended motion of the user is detected by pedal-based force sensors and is then used in combination with joystick movements as control signals for leg-exoskeleton and wheelchair motions. Experimental data is presented and then analyzed to determine robotic motion characteristics as well as the assistance efficiency with attached electromyogram (EMG) sensors. A typical muscle EMG signal analysis shows that the exercise efficiency for EMG activated amplitudes of the gluteus medius muscles approximates a walking at speed of 3 m/s when cycling at different speeds (i.e., from 16 to 80 r/min) in a wheelchair. As such, the present wheelchair robot is a good candidate for enabling effective gluteus medius muscle exercises for persons living with gluteus medius muscle disabilities. MDPI 2019-01-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6387381/ /pubmed/30696120 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s19030548 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Huang, Gao
Ceccarelli, Marco
Huang, Qiang
Zhang, Weimin
Yu, Zhangguo
Chen, Xuechao
Mai, Jingeng
Design and Feasibility Study of a Leg-exoskeleton Assistive Wheelchair Robot with Tests on Gluteus Medius Muscles
title Design and Feasibility Study of a Leg-exoskeleton Assistive Wheelchair Robot with Tests on Gluteus Medius Muscles
title_full Design and Feasibility Study of a Leg-exoskeleton Assistive Wheelchair Robot with Tests on Gluteus Medius Muscles
title_fullStr Design and Feasibility Study of a Leg-exoskeleton Assistive Wheelchair Robot with Tests on Gluteus Medius Muscles
title_full_unstemmed Design and Feasibility Study of a Leg-exoskeleton Assistive Wheelchair Robot with Tests on Gluteus Medius Muscles
title_short Design and Feasibility Study of a Leg-exoskeleton Assistive Wheelchair Robot with Tests on Gluteus Medius Muscles
title_sort design and feasibility study of a leg-exoskeleton assistive wheelchair robot with tests on gluteus medius muscles
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6387381/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30696120
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s19030548
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