311 Self-Powered Bilateral Master-Slave System for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Abstract

An innovative master-slave system implementing force feedback and motion tracking for a rehabilitation robot is presented in this paper. The system consists of two identical motors with a wired connection, and the two motors are located at the master and slave manipulator sites respectively. The slave motor tracks the motion of the master motor directly driven by a patient. As well, the interaction force produced at the slave site is fed back to the patient. Therefore, the impaired limb driven by the slave motor can imitate the motion of the healthy limb controlling the master motor,and the patient can regulate the control force of the healthy limb properly according to the force sensation. The force sensing and motion tacking are achieved simultaneously with neither force sensors nor sophisticated control algorithms. The system is characterized by simple structure, bidirectional controllability, energy recycling, and force feedback without a force sensor. Theoretical back ground of the proposed system and experimental results on a prototype are demonstrated, and the results appraise the advantages of the system and show the feasibility of the proposed control scheme for an upper limb rehabilitation robot.