Construct and control of feet gait mechanisms for walking training

Mechatronics Engineering Department, Faculty of Technical Education, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Pathumthani, Thailand

^* Corresponding author : warawut_s@rmutt.ac.th

Abstract

Gait training or gait rehabilitation is one of the major physiotherapy for stroke patients. Evidently, the robot-assisted gait training, as one part of medical technology innovation breakthrough, has important role in the rehabilitation process. The robot effectively improves treatment outcomes, fast recovery time and better convenience from traditional treatment. Typically, stroke patients are trained to walk on treadmill while a physiotherapist carefully supports and re-correct the gait pattern of the patient. For repetitive and long-time rehabilitation, it is so difficult that the physiotherapist can maintain the quality of treatment consistently. To solve such difficulties, the robotic platform is proposed for automatic guiding the gait pattern for ankle rehabilitation. The robot consists of left and right sides. Each of them is actuated by two linear and one rotational actuator. PID algorithm is implemented for position control of each joint. The experimental results show the tracking error in non-loaded and loaded cases.