A novel 5-DOF exoskeletal rehabilitation robot system for upper limbs

A novel 5-DOF exoskeletal rehabilitation robot for upper limbs of hemiplegic patients caused bystroke is proposed in this paper.Its hardware structure is introduced and the control methods are ana-lyzed.To implement intelligent and interactive rehabilitation exercises,motion intention of patients’ up-per limb is introduced into control methods of rehabilitation exercises.In passive motions,according tothe character of unilateral impaired,multi-channels surface electromyogram(sEMG)signals of patients’healthy arm muscles are acquired and analyzed to recognize the upper limb motions,then drive the robotand assist paralysis arm’ s rehabilitation exercises.In active-resistant motions,because patients are re-covered with some muscle forces and active motion ability after a rehabilitation period,the tenninal forceloaded on the robot by an impaired arm are estimated with multi-channel joint torque sensors,accordingto which,the terminal velocity of the robot is controlled to drive the joint motions with a damp controller.