WPAL ( Wearable Power-Assist Locomotor )
Paraplegic persons need a wheel chair to move. Using wheel chair, their ADL can be independent, but there are many physical problems caused by long-term use of wheel chair. And many paraplegic persons have strong wish to walk again. To prevent these problems and realize their wish, gait reconstruction is needed. Previously, the orthoses such as HGO or ARGO have been used to reconstruct the gait of paraplegics. In Japan, Primewalk is the most popular as the orthosis for paraplegia. Primewalk is bilateral knee-ankle-foot orthosis with a medial single hip joint. Because hip joint of Primewalk is located between lower extremities, Primewalk has many merits; free trunk, realization to wear independently, and compatibility with wheelchair. But Primewalk still has some problems; high energy consumption and difficulty to stand up and sit down independently. To solve these problems, we started to develop a new robot for gait reconstruction for paraplegics in 2005. This system is called WPAL ( Wearable Power-Assist Locomotor ). WPAL has six degrees of freedom on the bilateral lower extremities. Six motors are located on the bilateral hip, knee, and ankle joints. WPAL has medial hip joints which is similar to that of Primewalk. We designed WPAL in which orthotic part and robotic part is removable each other, because orthotic part should be manufactured individually to maintain suitability for the lower extremities, and robotic part should be standardized for mass production. The …
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