ROBOTIC CONFIGURATION FOR PARALYZED SWING LEG WITH EFFORT MINIMIZATION OF STANCE HIP TORQUES

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 twisted pelvis was able to pump required energy to the paralyzed leg. The collision of leg with ground was prevented by lifting the swing hip.