Diseño e implementación de un controlador centralizado para un exoesqueleto de extremidades inferiores

Abstract

There are several diseases and events that have an impact on lower limb mobility. These medical conditions affect people's quality of life and their ability to move independently. Physical therapy is one of the treatments that allows the recovery of the patient's functional mobility. Given the need of an efficient and consistent therapy, exoskeletons have been a complement to rehabilitation treatment. These devices reduce the physical effort of the physiotherapist and provide tools that allow them to concentrate on the patient's recovery. Exoskeletons consist of actuators placed close to the joints in order to generate movement trajectories. At the same time, sensors acquire patient information, such as electromyography and electroencephalography signals, or hardware components, such as the voltage of a battery pack and the position of the motors. In this case, the control system is the responsible for the coordination and operation of the exoskeleton components so that it guarantees the execution of a rehabilitation therapy. Physiotherapists have to interact with the exoskeleton, for that reason, they require a remote-control device or an application that runs on mobile devices or personal computers. The Autonomous Lower Limb Exoskeleton (ALLEX-1), developed at the University of Cuenca, requires a control system that coordinates and supervises its functionalities. This undergraduate thesis presents the design and implementation of a centralized control system for a lower extremity exoskeleton. This objective is achieved through the development of three subsystems: AllexApp, as a mobile application for high-level control that allows the user to send commands to the exoskeleton and manage rehabilitation sessions; AllexControl, as the embedded subsystem that is responsible for the coordination of sensors and actuators; and AllexServer, an auxiliary web server that manages patients' rehabilitation sessions.