Abstract:
Robotic systems are being used for gait rehabilitation of patients with neurological disorder. These devices are externally powered to apply external forces on human limbs to assist the leg motion. Patients while walking with these devices adapt their walking pattern in response to the applied forces. The e cacy of a rehabilitation paradigm thus depends on the human-robot interaction. A cable driven leg exoskeleton (CDLE) uses actuated cables to apply external torques at anatomical hip and knee joints. However, a cable can apply only pulling force on a body which limits a cable driven system functionality compared to a conventional robotic manipulator. Noting that a CDLE is proposed to assist in complex lower limb motion during walking. We present workspace analysis of CDLE considering planar and spatial leg model and the sti ness analysis of planar CDLE. Di erent sti ness performance indices are established to study the role of system parameters in improving the human-robot interaction. Human walking data were used for the analysis and to study the feasibility of CDLE architecture for human gait rehabilitation.