Journal of Bionic Engineering (2023) 20:212–224  https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-022-00254-5 

Reconfgurable Muscle Strength Training Robot with Multi-mode Training for 17 Joint Movements 

Jianfeng Li1  · Qiulin Fang1  · Mingjie Dong1  · Xi Rong2  · Liwei Jiang3  · Ran Jiao1 

1 Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, People’s Republic of China
2 The Afliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao 266000, People’s Republic of China
3 The CSSC System Engineering Research Institute, Beijing 100094, People’s Republic of China

Abstract  Different from limb rehabilitation training, the purpose of muscle strength training is to reduce muscle atrophy and increase muscle strength and tolerance through strength training of limb muscles, and then improve the muscle strength level of muscles (groups), mainly for sports ftness and muscle strengthening groups and patients with muscle atrophy or muscle weakness caused by various diseases. In this paper, we developed a new reconfgurable muscle strength training robot, a bionic robot by imitating physicians to conduct muscle strength training for patients, which was developed with six training modes for 17 joint movements, that is, the shoulder fexion/extension, the shoulder internal/external rotation, the shoulder adduction/abduction, the elbow fexion/extension, the wrist supination/pronation, the wrist fexion/extension, the wrist radial/ulnar deviation, the hip fexion/extension, the hip internal/external rotation, the hip adduction/abduction, the knee fexion/extension, the ankle dorsifexion/plantarfexion, the ankle adduction/abduction, the ankle inversion/eversion, the waist fexion/extension, the waist left/right rotation, and the waist left/right fexion. The reconfgurable mechanism was designed with fully electric adjuster and reconfgurable adaptors deployed on the driving unit, and six training modes were developed, namely, continuous passive motion, active exercise, passive–active exercise, isotonic exercise, isometric exercise and isokinetic exercise. Experiments with knee joint and elbow joint have shown that the developed reconfgurable muscle strength training robot can realize the multi-mode trainings for the 17 joint movements. 

Keywords  Reconfgurable mechanism · Bionic robot · Muscle strength training · 17 joint movements · Multi-mode trainings

Fig. 1 Reconfgurable muscle strength training robot