Admittance Control of the Ankle Mechanism in a Rotational Orthosis for Walking with Arm Swing

In order to provide an effective system for rehabilitation of walking, a new rotational orthosis for walking with arm swing, called ROWAS II, was developed. This study focused on development and implementation of admittance control of the ankle mechanism in the ROWAS II system for promoting active training. Firstly, the mechanical structure of the ankle mechanism is briefly introduced. Then the algorithms of the closed-loop position control and the admittance control for the ankle mechanism are described in detail. Four able-bodied participants were recruited to use the ankle mechanism running in passive and active modes. The experimental results showed that the ankle mechanism well tracked the target trajectory in passive mode. In active mode, the participants interacted with the ankle mechanism, and adjusted their ankle movement based on their active force. The ankle mechanism has the technical potential to meet the requirements of passive and active training in the ankle movement for patients in different post-stroke stages.