Design and development of a simple, low cost gait training assistive device

Abstract

Treadmill training with body weight support has promise in the rehabilitation of individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury. Currently, therapists manually assist the patient during gait training or mechanical orthoses drive the patient's legs. Manual training provided by physical therapists is demanding and labor intensive, while mechanical/robotic assist systems are expensive, immobile, and complex to setup and utilize by therapists. A simple system capable of providing gait training with affordable expense and ease of use is desirable. Implementation of the device would reduce costs in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, reduce the workload of physical therapists, and increase availability of rehabilitation to a greater population of spinal cord injury subjects. Goals for the assistive device were achieved by selecting pneumatic muscles as actuators based on their intrinsic properties: compliance, low mass, and ability to provide sufficient force. An assistive device was designed to provide the movements of the limbs during treadmill training.