Preliminary structural analysis of an active exoskeleton for robotic neuro-rehabilitation

In this paper the exoskeleton P.I.G.R.O. (Pneumatic Interactive Gait Rehabilitation Orthosis), developed in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMEAS) Politecnico di Torino with the important co-operation with doctors, is presented. It was preliminary designed for a completely unloaded walking gait cycle in order to treat the first steps of the neuro-rehabilitation trainings. An initial FEM evaluation of P.I.G.R.O. structure is here presented. It underlines a lot of important aspects and techniques to analyse the structural characteristics of P.I.G.R.O. legs rigid parts using a commercial software but analysing both the actions of the pneumatic actuators and of the patients muscles and/or movements. The results obtained are good and allow to verify the P.I.G.R.O. legs structure and to establish a procedure to study its characteristics also with the presence of the patient.