Article

Ankle rehabilitation robots can play an important role in improving outcomes of
the rehabilitation treatment by assisting therapists and patients in number of
ways. Consequently, few robot designs have been proposed by researchers which
fall under either of the two categories, namely, wearable robots or
platform-based robots. This paper presents a review of both kinds of ankle robots
along with a brief analysis of their design, actuation and control approaches.
While reviewing these designs it was observed that most of them are undesirably
inspired by industrial robot designs. Taking note of the design concerns of
current ankle robots, few improvements in the ankle robot designs have also been
suggested. Conventional position control or force control approaches, being used
in the existing ankle robots, have been reviewed. Apparently, opportunities of
improvement also exist in the actuation as well as control of ankle robots.
Subsequently, a discussion on most recent research in the development of novel
actuators and advanced controllers based on appropriate physical and cognitive
human-robot interaction has also been included in this review. Implications for
Rehabilitation Ankle joint functions are restricted/impaired as a consequence of
stroke or injury during sports or otherwise. Robots can help in reinstating
functions faster and can also work as tool for recording rehabilitation data
useful for further analysis. Evolution of ankle robots with respect to their
design and control aspects has been discussed in the present paper and a novel
design with futuristic control approach has been proposed.

Langue : ANGLAIS