Research on Design and Rehabilitative Action Planning of Pneumatic Driven Exoskeleton Robots for the Shoulder Joint Rehabilitation

Based on the analysis of the shoulder joint injury pathology, a pneumatic driven exoskeleton robot for shoulder joint rehabilitation was designed for the movement of shoulder joint vertical axis and coronary axis. The structure and range of motion of the robot shoulder joint were determined by combining the clinical treatment method of shoulder joint injury rehabilitation training with the principle of ergonomics. A pneumatic swing cylinder drive system was designed to provide reverse driving characteristics of robot joints and improve the passive compliance in the rehabilitation training. The kinematics model of the exoskeleton rehabilitation training robot was established, and the simulation results also show that the designed robot workspace can meet the needs of the human shoulder joint rehabilitation training. For this rehabilitation training robot, the independent and compound movements of the joints were designed to complete different kinds of treatments of rehabilitation training for joint shoulders, including internal/external rotation, flexion/extension as well as stretch ability. Experimental verification shows that during the movement track of the prototype according to the planned action, the joint movement of the robot driven by the pneumatic swing cylinder is stable, and the track tracking error meets the requirements of the rehabilitation training, which verifies the rationality of the structural design of the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot and the feasibility of rehabilitation action planning.