2008 Volume 2008 Issue 7-2 Pages 505-508
The purpose of this study was to develop a pneumatic gait training system which was consisted by Mckibben type actuators to achieve the normal gait patterns of lower limb joint angular displacements. These actuators were arranged as human musculoskeletal system; mono- and bi-articular muscles. The system provided a proportional directional control valve which controlled antagonistic actuators, and this system had PID controller and joint angular displacement feedback circuit. In the results, the output of the knee joint movement pattern had well validation for the input signal which was recorded from natural treadmill walking in healthy subjects. This system made the orthosis reproduce like the human natural walking. In conclusion, we structured a fundamental bi-articular muscle type of the gait training system using Mckibben type actuators.
