Lee Kyoung-Soub, Park Jeong-Ho, Beom Jaewon, Park Hyung-Soon
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea.
Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.
Front Neurorobot. 2018 Jul 27;12:38. doi: 10.3389/fnbot.2018.00038. eCollection 2018.
As the number of people suffering from shoulder movement disabilities increases, there is a rising demand for shoulder rehabilitation. The natural motion of the shoulder joint [glenohumeral (GH) joint] includes not only three-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) rotation but also three-DOF translation of the joint center due to simultaneous motion of the shoulder girdle. If the motion of the shoulder girdle is restricted, then the arm cannot be raised above a certain posture. This paper presents a passive shoulder joint tracking device that allows three-DOF translation of the shoulder joint while compensating for gravity. The single-DOF vertical tracker with a constant-force spring compensates for the gross weight of the user's arm, the upper limb rehabilitation device, and the tracker itself while allowing vertical tracking motion. The two-DOF horizontal tracker consists of two linear guides arranged perpendicular to each other. The tracker freely follows the shoulder joint in the horizontal plane. The effect of using the passive shoulder joint tracking device was evaluated by means of experiments by combining two popular commercial upper limb rehabilitation apparatuses with the proposed tracker. Nineteen subjects (8 healthy persons and 11 patients with shoulder impairments) participated in the evaluation study. The movement of the GH joint and the interactive force between the subject and the commercial rehabilitation device were analyzed when subjects made the following shoulder movements: flexion/extension and abduction/adduction. The improved tracker allowed a greater range of motion and reduced interaction. The tracker can be combined with existing commercial rehabilitation devices for more natural shoulder movement during rehabilitation tasks.
随着肩部运动功能障碍患者数量的增加，对肩部康复的需求也在不断上升。肩关节[盂肱（GH）关节]的自然运动不仅包括三个自由度（DOF）的旋转，还包括由于肩胛带的同步运动而导致的关节中心的三个自由度平移。如果肩胛带的运动受到限制，那么手臂就无法举到特定姿势以上。本文提出了一种被动肩关节跟踪装置，该装置在补偿重力的同时允许肩关节进行三个自由度的平移。带有恒力弹簧的单自由度垂直跟踪器在允许垂直跟踪运动的同时，补偿了使用者手臂、上肢康复装置以及跟踪器本身的总重量。两自由度水平跟踪器由两个相互垂直排列的线性导轨组成。该跟踪器在水平面内可自由跟随肩关节。通过将两种流行的商用上肢康复器械与所提出的跟踪器相结合进行实验，评估了使用被动肩关节跟踪装置的效果。19名受试者（8名健康人和11名肩部损伤患者）参与了评估研究。当受试者进行以下肩部运动时：屈伸和外展/内收，分析了GH关节的运动以及受试者与商用康复装置之间的相互作用力。改进后的跟踪器允许更大的运动范围并减少了相互作用。该跟踪器可与现有的商用康复装置相结合，以便在康复任务中实现更自然的肩部运动。
