Voluntary gait speed adaptation for robot-assisted treadmill training

Abstract

Robot-assisted gait training currently lacks the possibility of the robot to automatically adapt to the patient's needs and demands (so called “bio-cooperative control strategies”). It is desired to give the patient voluntary control over training parameters such as gait speed or joint trajectories. We implemented a control algorithm for the driven gait orthosis Lokomat that allows severely disabled stroke patients a limited and safe allowance of influence on their gait speed. To exercise gait symmetry, our algorithm can be configured such that only activity in the paretic leg will cause changes in treadmill speed. The algorithm was successfully tested with eight healthy subjects and six stroke patients.