A Semi-active Four-Bar Linkage Trunk Rehabilitation Device

Trunk rehabilitation is vital for restoring motor functions and, in turn, patients’ ability to live independently with quality. This work examines the potential implementations of semi-active and passive actuation mechanisms in rehabilitation devices by providing a trunk rehabilitation device based on a semi-active actuated four-bar linkage system. In this system, the actuation force is not directly provided by motors during training. Instead, it comes from passive components such as springs. The motors will be used only to change the mechanical properties of the passive components. Detailed mechanical analysis of the rehabilitation device was conducted in this work.