Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2021
26th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Cable-driven Active Arm Orthosis for Rehabilitation of the Upper Limb
Submission Author:
Eduardo Antonio Fragoso Dias , ES
Co-Authors:
Eduardo Antonio Fragoso Dias, Rafhael M Andrade
Presenter: Eduardo Antonio Fragoso Dias
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2021.COB2021-1213
Abstract
Stroke alone is the leading cause of disabilities worldwide, causing hemiplegia to over 50% of the survivors. Consequently, with the ageing of the population, it is expected an increase in the people dependent on assistive technologies due to neurological disorders. These conditions lead to enormous impacts in the quality of life by reducing the individual’s capacity to accomplish basic activities of daily living, causing life-long dependency. In this context the movements of the arm play a special role allowing the individual to interact with the ambient and relating to the performance several of our daily tasks. Therefore, a special attention must be given for the rehabilitation of the upper limb. For that, the robotic rehabilitation has emerged as a novel treatment for the neuromotor rehabilitation of impaired limbs due to relevant evidence of its effectiveness and reduction of therapist active assistance. While several robotic devices have been proposed to mimic and rehabilitate the human arm, few have the purpose of being wearable and lightweight, especially due to the heavy motors and gearboxes composing these equipments. In this perspective, we propose a cable-driven active arm orthosis for the rehabilitation of the arm and accomplishment of activities of daily living, with the goal of being lightweight and portable. The cable-driven actuator allows for the relocation of the motor unit from the users joint by means of a bowden cable transmission reducing the overall weight, volume, and inertia of the mechanism. That is especially relevant in this scenario, while lower limb exoskeletons can compensate for the weight of the structure, upper limb exoskeletons require the user to carry and sustain the device’s weight. Therefore, the optimization of mass and volume are one of the main requirements for such equipments. The resulting mechanism allows for the movements of flexion and extension of the elbow and pronation and supination of the forearm while providing adequate torques, speeds, and ranges of motion for performing the basic activities of daily living.
Keywords
Active Orthosis, robotic rehabilitation, Wearable, assistive technology, Cable-driven, upper limb
