Embedded system-based a portable upper limb rehabilitation robot

As the third disease of death and disability in the world, stroke makes a huge difficulty to patients for activities of daily living. Traditional therapies not only is expensive but also caused a shortage of physiotherapist. Currently, the majority of multi-degree-of-freedom rehabilitation robot of upper limb are not suitable for home rehabilitation due to their heavy or bulky problems. We designed an upper limb rehabilitation robot based on embedded system. The rehabilitation robot can achieve three degrees of freedom motion including elbow flexion/extension, wrist rotation and wrist flexion/extension. And it uses a bilateral rehabilitation strategy. The mechanical structure of this rehabilitation device is a lightweight and portable exoskeleton. The sensor system uses a small gyroscope, and the part of control system uses an embedded system. It is very suitable for home rehabilitation. Finally, two experiments were carried out to test the stability and accuracy of the control system. The experimental result shows that the device is safe and reliable for rehabilitation therapy.