Control strategy of an active arm weight-bearing unit for hemiplegic arm rehabilitation

Abstract

This research aims to develop a training unit that is capable of actively implementing the weight-bearing capacity of the arm in any position or orientation, thus cancelling the load on the arm during training. In other words, the aim is to develop an active arm weight-bearing system that has intellectual sensing, control, and driving functions that control motion and force and can be used in training to improve movement of the hemiplegic arm. This paper proposes an active arm weight-bearing system for hemiplegic arm rehabilitation. The control strategy and three weight-bearing patterns about the device's motion are proposed and their performances are evaluated experimentally.