Design of a new balance rehabilitation cable robot focused on patient with cerebral palsy

The increasing prevalence of nervous system diseases, such as stroke, spinal cord injuries, and cerebral palsy, has led to a significant rise in the demand for physical therapy exercises. Consequently, the use of rehabilitation robots has also increased. Among the nervous system diseases, cerebral palsy presents unique characteristics that require rehabilitation robots designed to address its specific needs. The first and most important exercise for these patients is balance training. This article introduces a robot designed to perform balance training. First, a dynamic model of the patient on the balance board is presented. Then, a safety zone is introduced for the patient. If the person goes out of this zone, the robot control recognizes it as an imminent fall and takes action to prevent them from falling. By specifying the balance zone, the robot will return the person to that zone and then deactivate. The designed robot consists of 8 cables attached to a rigid, reinforced thermoplastic vest. The robot detects intervention/non-intervention by using the position of the center of mass of the person to achieve operational efficiency, making it fully feasible and effective. The simulations reveal that when a 40-kg person falls, the cable forces increase hundreds of times from \({10}^{2}\) ${10}^2$ to \({10}^{4}\) ${10}^4$ \(\left(\frac{kg*cm}{{s}^{2}}\right)\) $\left(\frac{kg\ast cm}{s^2}\right)$ . Currently, it is the doctor's responsibility to bear this burden. On the other hand, the results show that decreasing the balance zone from 20 mm to 0.2 mm increases the duration of balance maintenance by the patient from 2 to about 8 s.