Development of Body Weight Support Robot for Assisting Pelvis Rotation during Walking Training

Abstract

In this research, we developed a walking assist robot for supporting user’s body weight and pelvis rotation simultaneously during overground walking training. We utilized load cells to instrument a pair of instrumented shoes to measure ground reaction force signals and utilized IMUs to instrument a climbing harness to measure transverse pelvic rotation. We purpose Static Body Weight Support (SBWS) method to support user’s body weight and Static Lateral Pelvis Trajectory Support (SLPTS) method to support user’s lateral pelvic rotation. We conducted the body weight support walking experiment to validate the basic design of our system. The result shows that user’s ground reaction force signals decreased accordingly under both two methods. Especially, under the SBWS+SLPTS method, lateral pelvis rotation shows a larger range of motion, which is more similar to natural walking.