A Game-Based Approach for Hemiplegia Lower Limb Rehabilitation

Hemiplegia is paralysis which occurs on one half of the body. Rehabilitation for hemiplegic patients, in order to prevent muscle degeneration from prolonged under-usage, can be boring as it requires the same movements to be performed repeatedly. This research project aims to reduce the cost of rehabilitation for hemiplegia patients by demonstrating an exoskeleton with the implementation of only a single active actuator as opposed to other complex designs with multiple active actuators. Moreover, the proposed game-based exercises can motivate and minimize boredom of patients in lengthy and intensive therapy sessions. This paper presents the design, control and preliminary evaluation on the feasibility of a low-cost rehabilitation approach that can be implemented for both home based therapy or rehabilitation center therapy. The proposed approach demonstrates a lower extremity exoskeleton with the implementation of only one DC motor located at the hip, in which it is linked to a video game, and is monitored and controlled by an ATmega328 microcontroller based on commands from the video game. Preliminary result shows that the movement of the exoskeleton can be controlled through commands from the video game but with a delay of 2s.