Abstract
This study aimed to develop a robot for effective knee joint rehabilitation. A kinematic approach was used to make exoskeleton robot joints to have the same range of motion (ROM) as that of human knee joints, and a robot exoskeleton was proposed to enable the wearer maintain a proper posture during rehabilitation therapy. This robot is generally used for the rehabilitation therapy for knee lesion patients (e.g., after knee replacement arthroplasty and cruciate ligament reconstruction), where the patients usually lie down wearing this robot. The alignment of the knees and body is a critical factor for the success of the therapy. Considering the rehabilitation therapy posture, the robot was manufactured with a kinematic structure different from that of the existing robots for knee rehabilitation therapy. In this study, the kinematic mechanism of the knee rehabilitation robot was described, and the actuator for the robot was selected by measuring the human knee joint motion and torque. Thus, an exoskeleton robot that is significantly different from the existing knee rehabilitation robots was developed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
O’Driscoll, S. W. and Giori, N. J., “Continuous passive motion (CPM): Theory and principles of clinical application,” Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 179–188, 2000.
Brosseau, L., Milne, S., Wells, G., Tugwell, P., Robinson, V., Casimiro, L., Pelland, L., Noel, M. J., Davis, J., and Drouin, H., “Efficacy of continuous passive motion following total knee arthroplasty: A metaanalysis,” Journal of Rheumatology, Vol. 31, No. 11, pp. 2251–2264, 2004.
Evans, E. B., Eggers, G. W. N., Butler, J. K., and Blumel, J., “Experimental Immobilization and Remobilization of Rat Knee Joints,” The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 737–758, 1960.
Bible, J. E., Simpson, A. K., Biswas, D., Pelker, R. R., and Grauer, J. N., “Actual knee motion during continuous passive motion protocols is less than expected,” Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res., Vol. 467, No. 10, pp. 2656–2661, 2009.
London, N. J., Brown, M., and Newman, R. J., “Continuous passive motion: Evaluation of a new portable low cost machine,” Physiotherapy, Vol. 85, No. 11, pp. 610–612, 1999.
Smidt, G. L., “Biomechanical analysis of knee flexion and extension,” Journal of Biomechanics, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 79–92, 1973.
Parenti-Castelli, V., Leardini, A., Di Gregorio, R., and O’connor, J. J., “On the Modeling of Passive Motion of the Human Knee Joint by Means of Equivalent Planar and Spatial Parallel Mechanisms,” Autonomous Robots, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 219–232, 2004.
Walker, P. S., Kurosawa, H., Rovick, J. S., and Zimmerman, R. A., “External knee joint design based on normal motion,” Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 9–22, 1985.
Bertomeu, J. M. B., Lois, J. M. B., Guillem, R. B., Pozo, P. D., Lacuesta, J., Mollá, C. G., Luna, P. V., and Pastor, J. P., “Development of a hinge compatible with the kinematics of the knee joint,” Prosthetics and Orthotics International, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 371–383, 2007.
Nielsen, D., Blocker, L., and Pardo, N., “Coordinated planar mechanisms to approximate the three dimensional motion of the knee,” Journal of Medical Devices, Transactions of the ASME, Vol. 3, No. 3, Paper No. 034501, 2009.
Tashman, S. and Anderst, W., “In-vivo measurement of dynamic joint motion using high speed biplane radiography and CT: Application to canine ACL deficiency,” Journal of biomechanical engineering, Vol. 125, No. 2, pp. 238–245, 2003.
Ottaviano, E., Ceccarelli, M., and Tavolieri, C., “Kinematic and Dynamic Analyses of a Pantograph-Leg for a Biped Walking Machine,” International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots, pp. 561–568, 2004.
Kurosawa, H., Walker, P. S., and Abe, S., “Geometry and motion of the knee for implant and orthotic design,” Journal of Biomechanics, Vol. 18, No. 7, pp. 487–499, 1985.
Schiele, A. and Van Der Helm, F. C. T., “Kinematic design to improve ergonomics in human machine interaction,” IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 456–469, 2006.
Lim, H., Hwang, S., Shin, K., and Han, C., “The application of the Grey-based Taguchi method to optimize the global performances of the robot manipulator,” Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) IEEE/RSJ, pp. 3868–3874, 2010.
Shelburne, K. B. and Pandy, M. G., “A musculoskeletal model of the knee for evaluating ligament forces during isometric contractions,” J. Biomechanics, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 163–176, 1997.
Kim, K. J., Kang, M. S., Choi, Y. S., Han, J., and Han, C., “Conceptualization of an exoskeleton Continuous Passive Motion(CPM) device using a link structure,” IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), pp. 1–6, 2011.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, K., Kang, M., Choi, Y. et al. Development of the exoskeleton knee rehabilitation robot using the linear actuator. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 13, 1889–1895 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-012-0248-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-012-0248-3