Robotic Configuration for Paralyzed Swing Leg with Effort Minimization of Stance Hip Torques and Bounded Stance Hip Orientation

This research work was aimed at an alternate approach for walking and training the paralyzed leg with a robot attached to the pelvis. The dynamic properties considered in this work were mass, center of gravity, moments of inertia of each link and the friction at each joint. The least square method was employed to identify the dynamic properties after exciting the robot and collecting the data of joint positions, velocities, accelerations and applied forces. A robot attached to the pelvis was employed to control the stepping motion of a paralyzed person suspended on a treadmill. In this configuration the large swivel motion was eliminated. A reasonable swing motion was achieved by limiting excessive hip swivel. This robot configuration would need large amount of effort to shift the stance hip to complete a gait.