Implementation of Motor-Based Wearable Knee Rehabilitation Robot System using 3D Printing

Abstract

This paper presents the implementation of a motor-based wearable knee rehabilitation robot (KRR) system using 3D printing. The proposed KRR is designed to support the user's rehabilitation movement when the user applies a force exceeding a certain value by utilizing the reaction force generated by the motor in a stationary state. A stepper motor attached to the user’s body rotates when the user applies a force over a certain value to a load-cell sensor. As the stepper motor rotates, a trapezoidal thread connected to the motor rotates, thereby adjusting the position of the robot's moving frame to assist the user in rehabilitation. The KRR proposed in this study was designed using 3D printing to have a lightweight structure to reduce the load on the knee when the system was worn by the user. To verify the safety of the proposed KRR, structural analysis was performed to analyze its characteristics, and it was experimentally confirmed that the KRR will be useful for the user's knee rehabilitation through the production of prototypes..