Design of elbow rehabilitation device based on cable-actuated mechanism

In this paper, a cable actuated mechanism is introduced as a new rehabilitation method. Having the need for a rehabilitation system consistent with the physical characteristics has led to certain new projects. Considering joint compliance during the motion can make the patient feel better and thus, bring success for the rehabilitation program. The advantages of the proposed low-cost and light weight mechanism are having a smooth joint motion with a stiffness which is adjustable, compensate gravity effects, remote actuation for delivering torque to a joint, motor size reduction and in the developed versions, ability to control multiple joints movements and deliver force to links with one source of power. In this paper, the joints torque and stiffness is investigated in the performance of the elbow rehabilitation device. This is effectively compatible with the elbow joint stiffness. Being similar to the behavior of human arm, the mechanism can be used more widely in the field of medical robotics.