An Assist Level Adjustment Method of an Active Shoulder Orthosis

An Assist Level Adjustment Method of an Active Shoulder Orthosis

  The shoulder motion is an extremely important part of the self-hand motion. Concentrating on this fact, we have developed an exoskeleton type active shoulder orthotic system for the rehabilitation and motion assist activities for the physically handicapped people. The proposed active orthosis is supposed to be directly attached to a patient and automatically assist the shoulder flexion-extension and abduction-adduction motions of the patient in rehabilitation and daily activities. In the proposed active orthotic system, electromyogram (EMG) signals of the shoulder muscles are monitored and used to control the motion of the orthosis. Fuzzy-neuro control method has been applied for the control of the proposed active orthotic system so that the physical and physiological condition of individual patients can be taken into consideration. In this paper, an effective assist level (the support level) adjustment method for the active shoulder orthosis is proposed. In the controller adaptation process, the assist level can be adjusted until the amount of patient"s EMG signals of the shoulder muscles reaches the desired level. The desired EMG levels of the shoulder muscles are decided for each patient based on his/her physical and physiological condition. Consequently, the desired amount of power assist can be delivered for the patient to perform the shoulder flexion-extension and abduction-adduction motions in rehabilitation and daily activities.