Design and construction of a foot motion based robotic gait training device​

The recovery of walking capability is an important goal after traumas such as stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. For this purpose, several rehabilitation devices are used to assist the therapeutical re-learning process of walking during the period of physical walking rehabilitation. The currently available robotic rehabilitation devices cannot simulate all phases of the walking cycle. This fact limits the success of the walking therapy. Therefore, there is a demand for a walking simulator that can assist the therapy for the whole walking cycle. In this thesis, the main aim and motivation have been the design and construction of a new robotic device that forces the feet of a patient to move exactly like they move during a healthy walking. To this end, each foot is modeled in accordance with its real characteristics as a two-jointed structure, rather than a simple rigid body, and the device is designed and driven so as to impart proper motion to both of the ankle and metatarsal joints of the foot. In the second part of the thesis, a dynamic analysis is performed by using a "Weakly Actuated Patient Model". Thus, it is expected that a mathematical medium is established to guide the physiotherapists and doctors about the treatment process and its requirements. In almost all the previous studies on the gait dynamics, the researchers used the Lagrange's equations. In this thesis, however, the Newton-Euler equations are preferred so that the reaction forces arising at the joints can also be determined as a by-product of the gait analysis.