Motion Planning and Experimental Validation of a Novel Robotic Device for Assistive Gait Training

Walking is an essential part of every day's mobility. To enable non-ambulatory gait-impaired patients the repetitive practice of this task not only in hospital, rehabilitation settings, but also in community, and homes, a novel robotic device for assistive gait training has been designed followed the end-effector principle. Deriving inspiration from the foot motion attitude of floor walking and the existing elliptical trainer, some ingenious constrain mechanisms were introduced to generate a human-like walking gait and the desired foot and metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint motions including toe and heel rising, dorsiflexion of MTP joint. The motion sequence of bilateral footplates and the rotation speeds of bilateral cranks were planned. A robotic prototype was developed as a platform for evaluating the design concepts and motion planning. The experimental results validated the feasibility and effectiveness of the design and motion planning.