Abstract
Entraining human gait with periodic torque from a robot may provide a novel approach to robot-aided walking therapy that is competent to exploit the natural oscillating dynamics of human walking. To test the feasibility of this strategy we applied a periodic ankle torque to neurologically impaired patients (one with stroke and one with multiple sclerosis). As observed in normal human walking, both patients adapted their gait periods to synchronize with the perturbation by phase-locking the robotic torque at terminal stance phase. In addition, their gait cadence became significantly faster due to the training with clear after effects when the perturbation ceased. These results support a new strategy for walking therapy that exploits an embedded neural oscillator interacting with peripheral mechanics and the resulting natural dynamics of walking, which are essential but hitherto neglected elements of walking therapy.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS |
Pages | 7474-7477 |
Number of pages | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2011 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2011 - Boston, MA, United States Duration: Aug 30 2011 → Sep 3 2011 |
Other
Other | 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2011 |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Boston, MA |
Period | 8/30/11 → 9/3/11 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
- Signal Processing
- Biomedical Engineering
- Health Informatics