A Novel Control Method of a 5-DOF Exoskeleton Robot for Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Training

After stroke, most patients experience motor function impairments at various levels. Rehabilitation robot is one of the effective ways for their timely recovery. In order to enhance patient participation and training effectiveness in post-stroke rehabilitation, this paper proposes a novel control method based on a 5-DOF upper-limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot. The real-time position deviation is computed based on the current position of the robot and the reference trajectory position to express the patient's movement status. Then, the required auxiliary force is automatically adjusted in real-time according to the deviation based on impedance control method. Finally, a fuzzy Proportional-Integral (PI) controller is proposed, the interaction between the patient's own output force and the auxiliary force provided by the robot is achieved. The validation experiments demonstrated that this method effectively reduced trajectory deviations during task completion and enhanced the patient participation. The controller performance has been significantly improved, exhibiting better robustness to disturbances and meeting the requirements of rehabilitation training.