Abstract
The purpose of this research was to develop a control method for Robot Suit HAL, in order to provide walking support for hemiplegic patients. Support for the affected side of a patient's body was provided using motion data from the unaffected side. The HAL was used to sense angle and angular velocity data for the hip and knee joints on the unaffected side, and to generate motion in these joints on the affected side using feedback control based on the motion of the unaffected joints. Initial experiments were conducted with an able-bodied subject, to validate the proposed control method. The results revealed that the affected side could be made to perform effectively by generating motion based on that of the unaffected side.
