(A) cable-driven robot with multi-dimensional gait assistance for enhancing gait stability

Abstract

This thesis focuses on a cable-driven robot for assisting the daily life walking of individuals with sarcopenia, a disease characterized by decreased muscle mass due to aging. The hip joint muscles during walking play a crucial role in extending the leg forward and stabilizing the pelvis. Therefore, the weakening of these muscles impairs the stability and efficiency of walking. Therefore, in this paper, 'multi-dimensional gait assistance' for a cable-driven assistance robot is suggested as a research direction. Optimization techniques for the anchor point's position and tension profile, which is the essence of the cable-driven robot are also presented. Anchor point and apparel based on micro velcro for attachment and detachment are introduced. Although the hardware and control strategy of the robot is designed for individuals with sarcopenia. it is not safe to directly validate the robot's effectiveness on patients. Therefore, walking experiments were conducted on a non-disabled individual to assess the stability and assistive effects of the robot. The evaluation of the proposed method's effectiveness was performed by measuring hip and torso angles, ground reaction force, center of pressure, metabolic cost, and electromyography data.