Design and Control of an Assistive Device for the Study of the Post-stroke Sit-To-Stand Movement
Résumé
Every year more than 5 million people worldwide become hemiplegic as a direct consequence of stroke. This neurological deficiency, often leads to a partial or a total loss of standing up abilities and /or ambulation skills. In order to propose new supporting solutions lying between the wheelchair and the walker, this paper presents a technological strategy for designing an assistive device for a biomechanical study of the Sit-To-Stand movement (STS). The control algorithms are implemented in TwinCAT runtime environment. The communication between the component and the control computer is ensured via the EtherCAT fieldbus. The aim of this architecture lies in the fact that it allows a quick development of a research prototype with the same safety issues found on an industrial machine. An experimental test of the STS strategy is presented and discussed in order to evaluate the strategy.