KR20140109090A - A leg muscular strength rehabilitation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a leg muscular strength rehabilitation apparatus. To this end, the present invention provides a leg muscular strength rehabilitation apparatus which includes: a lower limb bone frame including a plurality of articulate structures; a support for supporting the lower limb bone frame; a driving means provided in the support to provide a driving force for an operation of folding and unfolding the lower limb bone frame; and a guide plate connecting the lower limb bone frame and the support to perform an operation of folding and unfolding the lower limb bone frame while receiving the driving force of the driving means to be moved along a rail of the support. According to the present invention, the muscular strength of a patient′s leg which cannot move at all, for example, due to damage to a spinal cord or a brain even if the leg is not damaged can be maintained at a predetermined level or higher or can be recovered.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a leg muscle strength rehabilitation apparatus,

The present invention relates to a leg muscle force rehabilitation device, and more particularly, to a leg muscle strength rehabilitation device that can rehabilitate a leg in a patient who can not act like a spinal cord injury or a brain injury, To a leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus.

BACKGROUND ART In recent years, an increase in the elderly population has caused an increase in the occurrence of geriatric diseases such as paralysis. In addition, rehabilitation therapy for restoring leg strength is being performed for elderly people who are unwell due to aging or diseases. Rehabilitation includes assistive devices that assist the patient in stepping on the foot, helping him to wear robotic clothing on the treadmill and walk safely.

However, the above-described rehabilitation treatment is limited to a patient who can perform a certain degree of behavior. Rehabilitation using ancillary devices is not possible in patients with spinal cord injuries or brain injuries who can not perform at all. Of course, in this case, rehabilitation can be done through physical therapists or carers. However, in order to perform rehabilitation therapy safely and repeatedly, the physical effort of the physical therapist or the caregiver, the time and skill of the caregiver are needed. This leads to a considerable cost incurrence, and therefore the majority of patients are not actively utilizing the rehabilitation treatment described above.

If you live without lying on your leg for a long time, your leg muscles will decrease significantly. The decrease in leg muscle mass has a considerable hindrance to walking even if it can move, and in this case, additional rehabilitation is required to restore leg muscle mass.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2012-0057081 Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2012-0041896

It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a method for preventing leg muscles from being reduced by repeatedly moving a patient's leg which can not be used properly or can not act due to a spinal cord injury, And to provide a leg muscle force rehabilitation device.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, there is provided a frame structure comprising: a lower skeleton frame having a plurality of joint structures; A support for supporting the bottom skeleton frame; Driving means provided on the supporting frame and providing a driving force for a folding and unfolding operation of the lower frame; And a guide plate for connecting the lower skeleton frame and the support member and performing a folding / spreading operation of the lower skeleton frame while receiving the driving force of the driving means and moving along the rails of the support member .

Wherein the support base is provided with a magnetic sensor receiving unit for sensing the magnetism of the driving means and the magnetic sensor receiving unit is provided with two support members spaced from each other along the longitudinal direction of the rail so as to sense the folded state or the expanded state of the lower skeleton frame .

And a control unit box for inputting the electromyogram value of the patient sensed from the electromyogram sensor attached to the body of the patient and controlling the folding / spreading operation of the lower skeleton frame at a predetermined movement level corresponding to the electromyogram value .

Further, the lower skeleton frame is formed in a horizontal direction on the support so as to be capable of folding and stretching the leg in a lying state of the patient.

According to the leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

That is, since the operation of folding and unfolding the lower skeleton frame on the support frame is repeated according to the desired exercise level or the body condition of the patient while the lower skeleton frame is worn on the patient's legs, The patient's leg strength can be maintained or restored to a certain level even when the patient is inoperable or the patient is in an uncomfortable state.

1 is an overall perspective view of a leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control unit box of the leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus of Fig. 1
Figures 3 and 4 illustrate examples of manual / automatic mode tables stored in the memory of Figure 2

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is an overall perspective view of a leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, only the lower frame and the supporting frame will be mainly described in the constitution of this embodiment, and other configurations of this embodiment, for example, the control unit box and the like will be described with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, the leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus 100 includes a lower skeleton frame 110. The lower skeletal frame 110 has a frame shape modeling the exoskeleton of the leg so as to be worn on the leg of the patient and has a plurality of joint structures such that the leg can be folded and stretched when the patient wears it. In other words, the lower skeleton frame 110 has joints in the frame portions of the knees and ankles. When the leg is supported on the lower skeleton frame 110, a band 112 is formed to surround the shank and the foot portion of the leg so that the leg is not separated from the lower skeletal frame 110. In the meantime, although the leg skeletal frame 110 of this embodiment shows a structure in which only one leg can be worn, the leg skeleton frame 110 can be worn by one leg or both legs of the patient, It can be manufactured in a structure having various sizes and shapes so that it can be worn to the thigh.

A guide plate 120 is connected to the lower skeleton frame 110. The guide plate 120 is located on the upper surface of the support base 130, which will be described later, and performs an operation of moving forward and backward as the cylinder is driven. The lower skeletal frame 110 can be folded and stretched according to such forward and backward movement. As a result, it can be said that the guide plate 120 supports the folding and unfolding operation of the lower skeleton frame 110. Therefore, the guide plate 120 is coupled to the cylinder, which is the driving means for providing the driving force.

A support frame 130 for supporting the patient's legs wearing the skeletal frame 110 and the skeletal frame 110 thereof is constructed.

Referring to the configuration of the support base 130, the support base 130 is formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a rail 132 serving as a guide is installed on the upper surface thereof to guide the guide plate 120 back and forth.

A cylinder 134 is mounted on the support 130 to provide a driving force to move the guide plate 120 forward and backward along the rail 132. The cylinder 134 according to the present embodiment can control the exercise level according to the leg muscle strength of the patient based on the EMG sensed value sensed by the patient's body or provide the driving force according to the set exercise level do.

A sensor 136 is installed on the support 130. The sensor 136 is constituted by a magnetic sensor receiving section for detecting the magnetism of the cylinder 134. Hereinafter, the sensor 136 is referred to as a magnetic sensor receiving section. Accordingly, the number of folding and unfolding of the lower skeleton frame 110 can be checked according to the received value of the magnetic sensor receiving unit 136. [ To this end, two magnetic sensor receiving units 110 are used. One for detecting the fully folded state of the lower skeleton frame 110 and the other for detecting the fully opened state of the lower skeletal frame 110. Therefore, each magnetic sensor receiving unit 136 is mounted at a position where the lower skeleton frame 110 can detect the fully folded state and the unfolded state. However, the magnetic sensor receiving section 136 of this embodiment does not necessarily have to be two. That is, the number of times of exercise is based on the number of times the lower skeleton frame 110 is stretched and folded. In this case, the number of times of exercise can be determined even if only the opened state or the folded state is detected. Therefore, the magnetic sensor receiving portion may be mounted in only one portion. Also, the embodiment may detect the number of motions in consideration of other measures without using the magnetic sensor receiving unit 136 described above. For example, it is also possible to provide a contact sensor at a portion where the lower skeleton frame 110 is completely folded, and to count the number of times of movement in accordance with the contact count of the contact sensor.

On the other hand, reference numeral 140 denotes a control unit box. The control unit box 140 is formed with a display 142 and input buttons 144a, 144b, 144c and 144d on its front surface. The configuration of the control unit box 140 including the control unit box 140 will be described with reference to FIG. 2 do. Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control unit box shown in Fig. 1. Fig.

Referring to FIG. 2, the control unit box 140 provides a function for a patient to confirm or input various information while exercising. And is sized to allow easy identification and input of information. That is, the patient can have a size and a weight so that the patient can hold it by hand.

The control unit box 140 has a substantially hexahedron shape, and as shown in Fig. 1, a display 142 for displaying information and various input buttons 144 for inputting information are formed on the front face.

The display 142 displays the number of exercises, the exercise level, the selected mode information, and the like, which are the exercise status information of the patient.

The input button 144 is formed on the lower side of the display 142, and in the embodiment, the input button 144 is composed of a total of four buttons. A first button 144a for resetting the number of times of exercise and selecting an automatic mode for the exercise mode, a second button 144b for canceling the menu change and automatic mode, an up / down type 3 and fourth buttons 144c and 144d. Of course, a power button, a pause button, and the like may be configured.

It should be appreciated that the display 142 and the input button 144 may be designed in various ways. For example, the input button 144 may be configured as a power button, an automatic / manual button, a reset button, a number of times of exercise storing button, an up / down level adjusting button, or the like, . Also, the display 142 and the input button 144 may not be formed as separate components, but may be handled as a touch-type monitor. In the touch type, the monitor performs both an information display function and an information input function.

The control unit box 140 is provided with a memory 146. The memory 146 basically serves to store exercise information of the patient. The exercise information includes exercise time and exercise frequency information, and the patient's EMG sensing value. Also, the memory 146 is provided with first and second tables 146a and 146b according to a manual mode and an automatic mode, respectively.

The information stored in the first table 146a of the manual mode is a motion level caused by the operation of the third and fourth buttons 144c and 144d and the number of times of folding / expansion of the predetermined lower skeleton frame 110 . For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the motion level is '0', information such as the number of times of folding / spreading is 10 times, and the number of times of folding / spreading is 15 when the motion level is '1'.

In the automatic mode, the information stored in the second table 146b stores information for automatically providing the exercise level according to the patient's condition. That is, the sensed value of the electromyogram sensor described later and the exercise level to be performed corresponding to the sensed value are matched and stored. For example, if the sensing value is '0 to 99' as shown in FIG. 4, the motion level is set to '0'. If the sensing value is '100 to 199', the motion level is set to '1'. Here, the motion level is related to the number of times the lower skeleton frame 110 is folded and unfolded. In other words, when the strength of the patient is determined to be relatively stronger than the strength of the patient, the skeleton frame 110 can be folded and stretched more frequently. This can be practically accomplished by adjusting the piston air pressure of the cylinder 134.

The information stored in the first and second tables 146a and 146b according to the exercise mode can be adjusted in consideration of the condition of each individual patient.

The control unit box 140 includes an input terminal 148 for receiving a sensing value from the plurality of electromyography sensors 150 attached to the body of the patient, that is, a leg portion, and a measurement value of the magnetic sensor receiving unit 136. Although not shown in the drawing, an amplifier for amplifying the sensed value of the electromyogram sensor 150 and an integrator for acquiring a stable waveform may be further configured. In other words, the sensing value of the electromyogram sensor 150 may be too small to sense the body condition of the patient. In this case, it is necessary to amplify the sensed value and also to stabilize the amplified sensed value Because.

On the other hand, the control unit box 140 constitutes a control unit 149 that controls the overall operation of the leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus 100. That is, control of the folding / unfolding operation of the lower skeleton frame 110, automatic mode control using the electromyogram sensor 150, display control of motion information, and display of the number of times of exercise according to the measured value of the magnetic sensor receiving unit 136 are performed .

Next, a rehabilitation treatment process using the leg muscle force rehabilitation apparatus configured as described above will be described. The rehabilitation treatment process can be divided into the manual mode and the automatic mode, and is described separately.

1. Rehabilitation process according to manual mode.

The manual mode can be performed by operating the third and fourth buttons 144c and 144d of the up / down type provided in the control unit box 140 by the patient himself / herself.

First, the patient wears the lower skeleton frame 110. In this state, the patient determines the exercise level at which the patient can digest by manipulating the third and fourth buttons 144c and 144d. Normally, the exercise level is set to the lowest level in the initial state.

The control unit 149 accesses the first table 146a stored in the memory 146. In this case, the control unit 149 accesses the first table 146a, which is stored in the memory 146, when the movement level is determined by the operation of the third and fourth buttons 144c and 144d. As a result, the controller 149 can recognize the number of times of folding / expansion of the lower frame 110 corresponding to the movement level, and adjusts the driving force of the cylinder 134 accordingly.

When the cylinder 134 is driven, the guide plate 120 connected to the piston rod of the cylinder 134 reciprocates forward / backward along the rail 132. The lower frame 110 connected to the guide plate 120 is also driven. Therefore, the patient's legs wearing the skeleton frame 110 move in the same manner as the skeleton frame 110, so that the leg exercises are performed.

The patient can selectively adjust the exercise level by operating the third and fourth buttons 144c and 144d while exercising. Depending on the exercise level, the number of times the legs are folded (or the number of times it is stretched) in the current exercise state increases or decreases.

When the folding / spreading operation of the lower skeleton frame 110 is performed according to the above movement level, the magnetic sensor receiving unit 136 senses the folding / spreading state according to the position of the piston. The sensing result is transmitted to the control unit 149 via the input terminal 148, and the control unit 149 displays the sensing result on the display 142. Therefore, the patient can confirm the number of exercises through the display 142 of the control unit box 140 while exercising.

2. Rehabilitation process according to automatic mode.

In the automatic mode, at least one electromyogram sensor 150 is attached to the patient leg and the cable of the electromyogram sensor 150 is connected to the input terminal (not shown) to receive the sensing value of the electromyogram sensor 150 148).

In this state, when the patient operates the first button 144a to select the automatic mode, the control unit 149 receives the sensing value of the electromyogram sensor 150 preferentially. The controller 149 accesses the second table 146b to check the motion level corresponding to the received sensing value.

When the access level of the information stored in the second table 146b is determined as a result of the access level corresponding to the current sensing value, the controller 149 adjusts the driving force of the cylinder 134 according to the exercise level. As the cylinder 134 is driven, the guide plate 120 connected to the piston rod performs a forward / backward reciprocating motion along the rail 132, and the lower skeleton frame 110 performs a folding / spreading operation.

Accordingly, the patient's leg, which wears the lower skeleton frame 110, is also repeatedly folded and unfolded. Also in this case, the magnetic sensor receiving unit 136 senses the folding / spreading state according to the position of the piston, and the controller 149 displays the sensing result, that is, the number of times of exercise, on the display 142.

Since the lower skeletal frame 110 is repeatedly folded and unfolded according to the manual mode and the automatic mode, it is possible to restore leg muscular strength in a patient who can not move or is uncomfortable to move.

Meanwhile, in the above-described automatic mode, the folding / spreading operation of the lower skeleton frame 110 is repeated based on the sensing value of the electromyogram sensor 150. However, if the patient is provided with a button for inputting the number of times of exercise or the exercise time, a mode of exercising the leg by setting the number of exercises or the exercise time is also possible. That is, when the patient himself / herself inputs information to exercise by a certain number of times of exercise or exercise time, the controller 149 drives the cylinder 134 by the inputted number of exercise or exercise time, The operation of the cylinder 134 is stopped.

As described above, according to the present invention, the lower skeleton frame is worn on the patient's leg, and the lower skeleton frame is reciprocated on the support frame according to the patient's state or the desired motion level of the patient, thereby practically folding and unfolding the patient's legs And it can be seen that the rehabilitation treatment of the patient's legs can be smoothly performed.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. It will be apparent that modifications, variations and equivalents of other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical idea of the appended claims.

In other words, although the above example is limited to restoring and rehabilitating the leg muscles of a patient who can not perform the movement, the present invention may be applied to the fields for the rehabilitation of the elderly, the disabled, and the sports in the uncomfortable age.

100: leg muscle strength rehabilitation device 110: lower skeletal frame
120: guide plate 130: support
132: rail 134: cylinder
136: magnetic sensor receiver 140: control unit box
142: displays 144a to 144d: first to fourth input buttons
146: memory 148: input terminal
149: controller 150: electromyogram sensor

Claims (4)

A lower skeleton frame having a plurality of joint structures;
A support for supporting the bottom skeleton frame;
Driving means provided on the supporting frame and providing a driving force for a folding and unfolding operation of the lower frame; And
And a guide plate connected to the lower skeleton frame and the support member and configured to perform a folding / spreading operation of the lower skeleton frame while receiving the driving force of the driving unit and moving along the rails of the support member. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the support table constitutes a magnetic sensor receiver for sensing the magnetism of the drive means,
Wherein the magnetic sensor receiver is mounted with two spaced apart from each other along the longitudinal direction of the rail so as to sense a folded state or an extended state of the lower skeleton frame. The method according to claim 1,
And a control unit box for inputting the electromyogram value of the patient sensed from the electromyogram sensor attached to the body of the patient and controlling the folding / spreading operation of the lower skeleton frame at a predetermined movement level corresponding to the electromyogram value Leg muscle strength rehabilitation device. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the bottom skeleton frame comprises:
Wherein the leg support member is formed in a horizontal direction on the support so that an operation of folding and stretching the leg when the patient is lying down can be performed.

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