Theses and Dissertations Collection

Stroke rehabilitation is a rapidly growing research field in the engineering community. The introduction of robotics into traditional rehabilitation regimes brings exciting potential benefits including lower costs, increased dosage, increased motivation, and improved quantification of the rehabilitation process. This thesis presents mechanical design improvements of PARTNER, the Parallel Actuated Robotic Trainer for NEuroRehabilitation, a robot designed to provide spatial assistance during robotic therapy while exhibiting low-impedance, high backdrivability, and spatial uniformity characteristics. Specific mechanical designs of the robot’s structure, bearing assemblies, and linkages are described in detail. Additionally, some safety features and control system pieces are discussed. Finally, frequency response data of the system is presented alongside a fitted second-order dynamic model.