Active pedal exerciser for leg rehabilitation

Summary form only given. Given the importance of the ability to drive the lower limbs to perform most daily activities for all people and knowing that there is a constant need to develop new ways to help people who do not fully make use of this ability, either by external or physical causes, a tool for motion rehabilitation is being developed. In the market there are already some products for leg rehabilitation. Pedal exercisers and static bicycles are the most common. Mostly, they are very rudimentary because its practise can´t be controlled by the health staff through software. A number of them have virtual environments for simulation of outdoor exercise. Some products that aren´t yet on the market have new and important features, like reacting to the patient´s performance to optimize the rehabilitation process, through an adjustable resistant motor [1]. Other can stimulate patient´s legs movement because of their motor, and alternate between cycling forward or backward [2]. There is also a prototype of one device that trains lower limbs bilaterally [3]. The rehabilitation device presented here is based on a kind of motor assisted bicycle, which will gradually be triggered, depending on the pressure exerted on the force sensors existing on the pedals, allowing to compensate the leg with mobility problems, helping it to perform the expected cycling movement. There is also a sensor to monitor the patient´s heart rate. To obtain the pressure sensor and heart rate values a data acquisition system is used. It is connected to a computer and to the motor controller. With it, it is possible to perform motor control to ensure the efficiency of the treatment and the patient safety. There is also the capability of exercising each leg with different parameters, which represents a very useful advantage for stroke patients, and can also compensate for a missing or impaired limb by mimicking the performance of the healthy leg. A computer interface allows the physiotherapis- in charge to make a responsible management and an efficient monitoring of the equipment. It is expected to test a prototype in a public hospital soon.