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ChMER: an exoskeleton robot with active body weight support walker based on compliant actuation for children with
Yuantao Ding1, Zhengtao Wang1, Peizhong Yang1
1The State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Insights
This study introduces a compliant lower limb exoskeleton robot for young children with cerebral palsy (CP), enabling safer and more effective early rehabilitation through advanced active body weight support (BWS). The novel design ensures stable walking and adaptable support for enhanced therapeutic outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Robotics
- Biomedical Engineering
- Pediatric Rehabilitation
Background:
- Early rehabilitation is critical for young children with cerebral palsy (CP).
- Existing pediatric exoskeletons often lack compliance due to stiff actuation and passive body weight support (BWS).
- Safety and balance support are key considerations in pediatric exoskeleton design.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a novel mobile exoskeleton robot for children aged 3-6 with CP.
- To develop an intrinsically compliant actuation system for enhanced rehabilitation.
- To integrate an active BWS system for improved safety and effectiveness.
Main Methods:
- Designed a compact kinematic chain integrating an exoskeleton, active BWS, and a walker.
- Optimized actuation for stable passive and compliant active rehabilitation.
- Implemented quasi-direct drive actuation for high mechanical compliance and a planetary reducer for high torque.
- Utilized proprioceptive sensing for assistive torque control.
- Employed a series elastic actuator for the active BWS system.
Main Results:
- The developed robot demonstrated stable walking capabilities in passive rehabilitation mode.
- The robot provided high compliance during active rehabilitation.
- The active BWS system accurately generated support forces with reduced fluctuation.
- Control frameworks for both passive and active rehabilitation were successfully implemented and validated.
- Experimental results confirmed the robot's ability to support safe and compliant rehabilitation.
Conclusions:
- The novel compliant exoskeleton robot offers a promising solution for early rehabilitation in children with CP.
- The integrated active BWS and compliant actuation enhance safety and therapeutic efficacy.
- This technology has the potential to significantly improve rehabilitation outcomes for young CP patients.
Introduction:
Lower limb exoskeleton robots for young children with cerebral palsy (CP) are crucial to support earlier rehabilitation that is more beneficial than later. For safety reasons, pediatric exoskeletons are usually equipped with body weight support (BWS) devices to help young patients maintain balance. However, existing pediatric exoskeletons tend to use stiff joint actuation and passive BWS with limited compliance.
Method:
This paper proposes a novel mobile exoskeleton robot for young children (3- ∼ 6-years-old) with CP based on intrinsically compliant actuation. A compact kinematic chain that integrates an exoskeleton, an active BWS system, and a walker is proposed. Furthermore, with the actuation design optimization of the kinematic chain, the robot can walk alone stably in passive rehabilitation and provide high compliance in active rehabilitation. The exoskeleton adopts actuation similar to the quasi-direct drive paradigm to acquire high mechanical compliance and uses a secondary planetary reducer to ensure high output torque. Assistive torque control is achieved through proprioceptive sensing instead of torque sensors. The BWS system uses a series elastic actuator to accurately generate the weight support force and significantly reduce the fluctuation of the support force compared to the passive BWS.
Results And Discussion:
Finally, control frameworks for passive and active rehabilitation are implemented to validate the robot performance. The experimental results demonstrate that our robot can support safe and compliant rehabilitation.
