Design and control methodology of a lower extremity assistive device

Abstract

Intensive and task-oriented gait rehabilitation has shown to improve walking function of stroke patients. However, the access to present rehabilitation devices is limited to tertiary rehabilitation centers due to their size and cost. In addition, their fixed trajectory based control method limits the effectiveness of training. This thesis attempts to address these issues, and proposes an effective control method for intuitive assistance of an assistive device. In this work, we present a development and control methodology of a lower extremity assistive device for home rehabilitation and assistance in Activities of Daily Living (ADL). To begin, a survey of recent works in the field of lower limb exoskeleton was done. Then, a list of considerations for a wearable assistive is discussed before a portable wearable assistive device, called Lower Extremity Assistive Device (LEAD), is developed and presented.