Neurorehabilitation Robot system for neurological patients using H-infinity Impedance controller

Patients with paralyzed upper extremities due to central nervous system lesion after stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury receive rehabilitation therapy. The rehabilitation robot is studied for the effective therapy. To train the patients more effectively, it is necessary to study not only mechanisms of robots but also control strategy for rehabilitation. The purpose of various control algorithms for therapy is to implement various training repetitively and intensively. Then, these control strategies can induce the plasticity of motors and brain and improve patient's motor recovery. In this paper, we propose the upper limb robot system for neurorehabilitation. This robot is combined with the path control algorithm applying H-infinity optimization to impedance control for virtual tunnel. We present the entire robot system, robot's mechanism and procedure of optimizing the path controller for robustness. Also, the robot system is verified by test with a healthy person before it applies to the paralyzed patients.This research was supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy(MOTIE), KOREA, through the Education Support program for Creative and Industrial Convergence (N0000717) and the Public welface & Safety research program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2010–0020487)