Motion and force control method of 7-DOF cable-driven rehabilitation exoskeleton robot

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design an exoskeleton robot and present a corresponding rehabilitation training method for patients in different rehabilitation stages. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a lightweight seven-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) cable-driven exoskeleton robot that is wearable and adjustable. After decoupling joint movement caused by a cable-driven mechanism, active rehabilitation training mode and passive rehabilitation training mode are proposed to improve the effect of rehabilitation training. Findings Simulations and experiments have been carried out, and the results validated the feasibility of the proposed mechanism and methods by a fine rehabilitative effect with different persons. Originality/value This paper designed a 7-DOF cable-driven exoskeleton robot that is suitable for patients of different body measurements and proposed the active rehabilitation training mode and passive rehabilitation training mode based on the cable-driven exoskeleton robot.