Abstract

To accommodate the gait and balance disorder of the elderly with age progression and the occurrence of various senile diseases, this paper proposes a novel gait balance training robot (G-Balance) based on a six degree-of-freedom parallel platform. Using the platform movement and IMU wearable sensors, two training modes, i.e., active and passive, are developed to achieve vestibular stimulation. Virtual reality technology is applied to achieve visual stimulation.

In the active training mode, the elderly actively exercises to control the posture change of the platform and the switching of the virtual scene. In the passive training mode, the platform movement is combined with the virtual scene to simulate bumpy environments, such as earthquakes, to enhance the human anti-interference ability. To achieve a smooth switching of the scene, continuous speed and acceleration of the platform motion are required in some scenarios, in which a trajectory planning algorithm is applied.

This paper describes the application of the trajectory planning algorithm in the balance training mode and the optimization of jerk (differential of acceleration) based on cubic spline planning, which can reduce impact on the joint and enhance stability.