A Reactive Robotized Interface for Lower Limb Rehabilitation: Clinical Results

TL;DR

This paper introduces MONIMAD, a reactive robotic interface for lower limb rehabilitation, demonstrating its effectiveness through clinical results and a fuzzy-based controller that adapts to patient stability during sit-to-stand movements.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel reactive robotic interface with a fuzzy controller for personalized lower limb rehabilitation, validated through clinical trials with cerebellar disease patients.

Findings

Successful clinical validation with diseased patients

Effective identification of sit-to-stand phases

Adaptive control improves patient stability

Abstract

-This article presents clinical results from the use of MONIMAD, a reactive robotized interface for lower limb Rehabilitation of patients suffering from cerebellar disease. The first problem to be addressed is the postural analysis of sit-to-stand motion. Experiments with healthy subjects were performed for this purpose. Analysis of external forces shows that sit-to-stand transfer can be subdivided into several phases: preaccel-eration, acceleration, start rising, rising. Observation of Center of Pressure, ground forces and horizontal components force on handles yields rules to identify the stability of the patient and to adjust the robotic interface motion to the human voluntary movement. These rules are used in a fuzzy-based controller implementation. The controller is validated on experiments with diseased patients in Bellan Hospital.