Abstract
In order to realize self-rehabilitation by user oneself to achieve early recovery and improvement of QOL, this paper proposes a spatial rehabilitation mechanism which can adapt to fluctuation of the rotational axis of human joint while preventing exertion of unnecessary shearing force. Kinetostatic analysis of the mechanism is performed to achieve large-enough range of motion to establish practical rehabilitation treatment, and to evaluate magnitude of the residual shearing force caused by friction of cylindrical joints and the effect of the gravity. Experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism and the kinetostatic analysis is proposed. Compensation of the shearing force by adding springs at passive joints of the mechanism is proposed and spring constant and initial offset of each spring are determined based on kinetostatic analysis. An effective solution is shown in which for reducing the shearing force is reduced by 80% by adding springs on two cylindrical- and one revolute joints.
