DOCSLIB.ORG

History and Future of Rehabilitation Robotics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
History and Future of Rehabilitation Robotics Project Number: AHH - 0901 History and Future of Rehabilitation Robotics An Interactive Qualifying Project Report submitted to the Faculty of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science by ____________________ _________________ ___________________ Christopher Frumento Ethan Messier Victor Montero Submitted: March 2, 2010 __________________________ Prof. Allen H. Hoffman, Advisor Abstract With recent technological advances it has become possible to develop advanced artificial limbs for people with disabilities. This report gives a brief history of the field of Rehabilitation Robotics, and then reviews eight currently produced (either experimentally or commercially) robotic devices designed to assist patients with limb loss or in need of skeletal-muscular assistance. After detailing the use and operation of each device, this report assesses each device on the basis of eight criteria: cost, accessibility, maintainability, training, adaptability, safety, environmental concerns and technological possibility. Each device was given a ranking based on those criteria, and on the basis of those rankings, predictions were made as which technologies are most successful today and most likely to be the basis of future development. This report concludes that the technology contained in the I-Limb is the most likely to be enhanced and further developed. ii | P a g e Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Objectives ..................................................................................................................................................... 2 Background ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Definitions..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Gait Rehabilitation .................................................................................................................................... 9 Electromyogram Controls ......................................................................................................................... 9 Phantom Limb Syndrome ....................................................................................................................... 11 Reinnervation and Sensory Feedback ..................................................................................................... 11 Rehabilitation Robotic Systems .................................................................................................................. 14 Lower Extremity Exoskeletons ............................................................................................................... 14 BLEEX ................................................................................................................................................ 14 LOPES (Lower Extremity Powered Exoskeleton) .............................................................................. 19 Bionic Hands ........................................................................................................................................... 20 I-Limb ................................................................................................................................................. 20 Shadow Hand ...................................................................................................................................... 22 Smart Hand ......................................................................................................................................... 25 Bionic Arms ............................................................................................................................................ 27 Luke Arm ............................................................................................................................................ 28 Proto-1 and Proto-2 ............................................................................................................................. 29 Full Body Exoskeleton ............................................................................................................................ 30 Hybrid Assistive Limb ........................................................................................................................ 30 Evaluation ................................................................................................................................................... 33 Criteria .................................................................................................................................................... 33 Cost ..................................................................................................................................................... 34 Accessibility ........................................................................................................................................ 35 Maintainability .................................................................................................................................... 36 Training ............................................................................................................................................... 37 Adaptability ......................................................................................................................................... 38 Safety .................................................................................................................................................. 38 Environmental Concerns ..................................................................................................................... 39 Results ................................................................................................................................................. 40 Analysis ...................................................................................................................................................... 40 Bionic Hands ........................................................................................................................................... 44 Bionic Arms ............................................................................................................................................ 45 Exoskeletons ........................................................................................................................................... 46 Projections................................................................................................................................................... 48 BLEEX and LOPES ................................................................................................................................ 49 Bionic Limbs ........................................................................................................................................... 50 Hal-5 ....................................................................................................................................................... 52 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 54 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................................ 56 Reference ................................................................................................................................................ 58 List of Figures Figure 1: Iron Hand Designed by Ambroise Pare ...................................................................................... 4 Figure 2: General Electric's HARDIMAN .................................................................................................... 6 Figure 3: Hal-5 .............................................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 4: BLEEX ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Figure 5: HEPU Layout .............................................................................................................................. 15 Figure 6: BLEEX Hydraulic Actuators ....................................................................................................... 18 Figure 7:LOPES Exoskeleton ..................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 8: I-Limb .......................................................................................................................................... 21 Figure 9: I-Limb Cosmesis ......................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 10: Shadow Hand ............................................................................................................................ 23 Figure 11: Smart Hand ................................................................................................................................ 25 Figure
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Robotic Devices for Paediatric Rehabilitation: a Review of Design Features
    Gonzalez et al. BioMed Eng OnLine (2021) 20:89 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-021-00920-5 BioMedical Engineering OnLine REVIEW Open Access Robotic devices for paediatric rehabilitation: a review of design features Alberto Gonzalez1, Lorenzo Garcia1* , Jef Kilby1 and Peter McNair2 *Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract 1 BioDesign Lab, School Children with physical disabilities often have limited performance in daily activities, of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, hindering their physical development, social development and mental health. There- Auckland University fore, rehabilitation is essential to mitigate the adverse efects of the diferent causes of of Technology, Auckland, physical disabilities and improve independence and quality of life. In the last decade, New Zealand Full list of author information robotic rehabilitation has shown the potential to augment traditional physical reha- is available at the end of the bilitation. However, to date, most robotic rehabilitation devices are designed for adult article patients who difer in their needs compared to paediatric patients, limiting the devices’ potential because the paediatric patients’ needs are not adequately considered. With this in mind, the current work reviews the existing literature on robotic rehabilitation for children with physical disabilities, intending to summarise how the rehabilitation robots could fulfl children’s needs and inspire researchers to develop new devices. A literature search was conducted utilising the Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus databases. Based on the inclusion–exclusion criteria, 206 publications were included, and 58 robotic devices used by children with a physical disability were identifed. Diferent design factors and the treated conditions using robotic technology were compared.
    [Show full text]
  • Anindo Roy, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Neurology University of Maryland School of Medicine
    Curriculum Vitae Anindo Roy, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Neurology University of Maryland School of Medicine Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Maryland Robotics Center, Institute for Systems Research Lecturer, Office of Advanced Engineering Education Affiliate, Department of Bioengineering University of Maryland, College Park Date: April 29, 2017 Contact Information • Department of Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 110 S Paca St, Baltimore, MD 21210 • Phone: 410-200-0894 • Fax: 410-605-7913 • Email: [email protected] • Foreign Languages: Hindi (native, fluent), Bengali (native, fluent) Education Jul 1998 Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) Major: Electrical Engineering JMI University, New Delhi, India Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology Senior Design Project: “Design of a Magnetic Levitation System” Jan 2000 Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) Engineering (Major: Control Systems) University of Sussex, Brighton, Sussex, UK Department of Engineering and Design, School of Engineering Thesis: “Design of Optimal Sampled Data Control Systems” Thesis Advisor: Derek P. Atherton, Ph.D., D.Sc. May 2005 Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Applied Science (Major: Engineering Science and Systems) University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA Department of Applied Science, College of Engineering & Information Technology Thesis: “Robust Stabilization of Multi-Body Biomechanical Systems: A Control Theoretic Approach” Thesis Advisor: Kamran Iqbal, Ph.D. Post Graduate Education and Training 2005-2006 Post-Doctoral Fellow (Neuromechanics) Georgia Institute of Technology (GeorgiaTech)/Emory University Laboratory for Neuroengineering (Neuromechanics Group) Anindo Roy, Page 1 of 18 Department of Biomedical Engineering, GeorgiaTech School of Engineering/Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Mentor: Lena Ting, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Prosthetic and Orthotic Rehabilitation Smita Nayak and Rajesh Kumar Das
    Chapter Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Prosthetic and Orthotic Rehabilitation Smita Nayak and Rajesh Kumar Das Abstract Technological integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the Prosthetic and Orthotic industry and in the field of assistive technology has become boon for the Persons with Disabilities. The concept of neural network has been used by the leading manufacturers of rehabilitation aids for simulating various anatomical and biomechanical functions of the lost parts of the human body. The involvement of human interaction with various agents’ i.e. electronic circuitry, software, robotics, etc. has made a revolutionary impact in the rehabilita- tion field to develop devices like Bionic leg, mind or thought control prosthesis and exoskeletons. Application of Artificial Intelligence and robotics technology has a huge impact in achieving independent mobility and enhances the quality of life in Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). Keywords: artificial neural network, deep learning, brain computer Interface (BCI), electromyography (EMG), electroencephalogram (EEG) 1. Introduction Human is the most intelligent creature in the planet for their brain power and neural network. The human brain is extremely complex with more than 80 billion neurons and trillion of connections [1]. Simulation scales can array from molecular and genetic expressions to compartment models of subcellular volumes and individual neurons to local networks and system models [2]. Deep Neural Network nodes are an over simplification of how brain synapses work. Signal transmission in the brain is dominated by chemical synapses, which release chemical substances and neurotrans- mitters to convert electrical signals via voltage-gated ion channels at the presynaptic cleft into post-synaptic activity.
    [Show full text]
  • Special Feature on Advanced Mobile Robotics
    applied sciences Editorial Special Feature on Advanced Mobile Robotics DaeEun Kim School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Shinchon, Seoul 03722, Korea; [email protected] Received: 29 October 2019; Accepted: 31 October 2019; Published: 4 November 2019 1. Introduction Mobile robots and their applications are involved with many research fields including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Mobile robots are widely used for transportation, surveillance, inspection, interaction with human, medical system and entertainment. This Special Issue handles recent development of mobile robots and their research, and it will help find or enhance the principle of robotics and practical applications in real world. The Special Issue is intended to be a collection of multidisciplinary work in the field of mobile robotics. Various approaches and integrative contributions are introduced through this Special Issue. Motion control of mobile robots, aerial robots/vehicles, robot navigation, localization and mapping, robot vision and 3D sensing, networked robots, swarm robotics, biologically-inspired robotics, learning and adaptation in robotics, human-robot interaction and control systems for industrial robots are covered. 2. Advanced Mobile Robotics This Special Issue includes a variety of research fields related to mobile robotics. Initially, multi-agent robots or multi-robots are introduced. It covers cooperation of multi-agent robots or formation control. Trajectory planning methods and applications are listed. Robot navigations have been studied as classical robot application. Autonomous navigation examples are demonstrated. Then services robots are introduced as human-robot interaction. Furthermore, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are shown for autonomous navigation or map building.
    [Show full text]
  • A Review on the Control of the Mechanical Properties of Ankle Foot Orthosis for Gait Assistance
    actuators Review A Review on the Control of the Mechanical Properties of Ankle Foot Orthosis for Gait Assistance Dimas Adiputra 1,2,† , Nurhazimah Nazmi 1,†, Irfan Bahiuddin 3,† , Ubaidillah Ubaidillah 4,†, Fitrian Imaduddin 4,†, Mohd Azizi Abdul Rahman 1,*,†, Saiful Amri Mazlan 1,† and Hairi Zamzuri 1 1 Advanced Vehicle System Laboratory, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia; [email protected] (D.A.); [email protected] (N.N.); [email protected] (S.A.M.); [email protected] (H.Z.) 2 Electrical Engineering Department, Institut Teknologi Telkom Surabaya, Surabaya 60234, Indonesia 3 Vocational School, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jogjakarta 55281, Indonesia; [email protected] 4 Mechanical Engineering Department, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia; [email protected] (U.U.); fi[email protected] (F.I.) * Correspondence: [email protected] † These authors contributed equally to this work. Received: 20 December 2018; Accepted: 24 January 2019; Published: 28 January 2019 Abstract: In the past decade, advanced technologies in robotics have been explored to enhance the rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. Previous works have shown that gait assistance for post-stroke patients can be provided through the use of robotics technology in ancillary equipment, such as Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO). An AFO is usually used to assist patients with spasticity or foot drop problems. There are several types of AFOs, depending on the flexibility of the joint, such as rigid, flexible rigid, and articulated AFOs. A rigid AFO has a fixed joint, and a flexible rigid AFO has a more flexible joint, while the articulated AFO has a freely rotating ankle joint, where the mechanical properties of the AFO are more controllable compared to the other two types of AFOs.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief Review on Robotic Exoskeletons for Upper Extremity
    botic Ro s & n A i u s t e o m Islam et al., Adv Robot Autom 2017, 6:3 c n a a Advances in Robotics t v i DOI: 10.4172/2168-9695.1000177 o d n A ISSN: 2168-9695 & Automation Research Article Open Access A Brief Review on Robotic Exoskeletons for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation to Find the Gap between Research Porotype and Commercial Type Md Rasedul Islam*, Christopher Spiewak, Mohammad Habibur Rahman and Raouf Fareh College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA Abstract The number of disabled individuals due to stroke is increasing day by day and is projected to continue increasing at an alarming rate in United States. But the current amount of health professionals in physical therapy is inadequate to provide rehabilitation to these large groups. From early 1990s, researchers have been trying to develop an easy and feasible solution to this problem and lot of assistive devices both end effector type or exoskeleton type have been developed till to date. However, only a few of them have been commercialized and are being used in rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. Making the use of exoskeletons and other devices to regain lost motor function is rare. Providing therapy to this large group is quite impossible without commercializing of exoskeleton. This has motivated the authors to make a literature review and figure the reasons out that need to be solved to bridge the gap between research prototype to commercial version. This paper covers the necessity of incorporating robotic devices in rehabilitation, a brief description of existing devices particularly upper limb exoskeletons, their hardware limitations, and control issues.
    [Show full text]
  • Automatic Support Control of an Upper Body Exoskeleton — Method and Validation Using the Stuttgart Exo-Jacket
    Wearable Technologies (2020), 1, e2 doi:10.1017/wtc.2020.1 RESEARCH ARTICLE Automatic support control of an upper body exoskeleton — Method and validation using the Stuttgart Exo-Jacket Raphael Singer* , Christophe Maufroy and Urs Schneider Biomechatronic Systems, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), Stuttgart, Germany *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Received: 1 February 2020; Revised: 9 May 2020; Accepted: 25 May 2020 Keywords: Exoskeletons; Human-Robot Interaction; Physical Human-Robot Interactive Controllers; Industry; Control Abstract Although passive occupational exoskeletons alleviate worker physical stresses in demanding postures (e.g., overhead work), they are unsuitable in many other applications because of their lack of flexibility. Active exoskeletons that are able to dynamically adjust the delivered support are required. However, the automatic control of support provided by the exoskeleton is still a largely unsolved challenge in many applications, especially for upper limb occupational exo- skeletons, where no practical and reliable approach exists. For this type of exoskeletons, a novel support control approach for lifting and carrying activities is presented here. As an initial step towards a full-fledged automatic support control (ASC), the present article focusses on the functionality of estimating the onset of user’s demand for support. In this way, intuitive behavior should be made possible. The combination of movement and muscle activation signals of the upper limbs is expected to enable high reliability, cost efficiency, and compatibility for use in industrial applications. The functionality consists of two parts: a preprocessing—the motion interpretation—and the support detection itself. Both parts were trained with different subjects, who had to move objects.
    [Show full text]
  • History and Future of Rehabilitation Robotics Christopher Frumento Worcester Polytechnic Institute
    Worcester Polytechnic Institute DigitalCommons@WPI Assistive Technology Resource Center Projects Assistive Technology Resource Center 3-2-2010 History and Future of Rehabilitation Robotics Christopher Frumento Worcester Polytechnic Institute Ethan Messier Worcester Polytechnic Institute Victor Montero Worcester Polytechnic Institute Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/atrc-projects Part of the Biomechanical Engineering Commons, and the Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons Suggested Citation Frumento, Christopher , Messier, Ethan , Montero, Victor (2010). History and Future of Rehabilitation Robotics. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/atrc-projects/42 This Other is brought to you for free and open access by the Assistive Technology Resource Center at DigitalCommons@WPI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Assistive Technology Resource Center Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WPI. Project Number: AHH - 0901 History and Future of Rehabilitation Robotics An Interactive Qualifying Project Report submitted to the Faculty of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science by ____________________ _________________ ___________________ Christopher Frumento Ethan Messier Victor Montero Submitted: March 2, 2010 __________________________ Prof. Allen H. Hoffman, Advisor Abstract With recent technological advances it has become possible to develop advanced artificial limbs for people with disabilities. This report gives a brief history of the field of Rehabilitation Robotics, and then reviews eight currently produced (either experimentally or commercially) robotic devices designed to assist patients with limb loss or in need of skeletal-muscular assistance. After detailing the use and operation of each device, this report assesses each device on the basis of eight criteria: cost, accessibility, maintainability, training, adaptability, safety, environmental concerns and technological possibility.
    [Show full text]
  • A Powered Exoskeleton for Complete Paraplegics
    applied sciences Article A User Interface System with See-Through Display for WalkON Suit: A Powered Exoskeleton for Complete Paraplegics Hyunjin Choi 1,2,* , Byeonghun Na 1, Jangmok Lee 1 and Kyoungchul Kong 1,2 1 Angel Robotics Co. Ltd., 3 Seogangdae-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04111, Korea; [email protected] (B.N.); [email protected] (J.L.); [email protected] (K.K.) 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04107, Korea * Correspondence: [email protected] or [email protected]; Tel.: +82-70-7601-0174 Received: 18 October 2018; Accepted: 14 November 2018; Published: 19 November 2018 Abstract: In the development of powered exoskeletons for paraplegics due to complete spinal cord injury, a convenient and reliable user-interface (UI) is one of the mandatory requirements. In most of such robots, a user (i.e., the complete paraplegic wearing a powered exoskeleton) may not be able to avoid using crutches for safety reasons. As both the sensory and motor functions of the paralyzed legs are impaired, the users should frequently check the feet positions to ensure the proper ground contact. Therefore, the UI of powered exoskeletons should be designed such that it is easy to be controlled while using crutches and to monitor the operation state without any obstruction of sight. In this paper, a UI system of the WalkON Suit, a powered exoskeleton for complete paraplegics, is introduced. The proposed UI system consists of see-through display (STD) glasses and a display and tact switches installed on a crutch for the user to control motion modes and the walking speed.
    [Show full text]
  • Acknowledgements Acknowl
    2161 Acknowledgements Acknowl. B.21 Actuators for Soft Robotics F.58 Robotics in Hazardous Applications by Alin Albu-Schäffer, Antonio Bicchi by James Trevelyan, William Hamel, The authors of this chapter have used liberally of Sung-Chul Kang work done by a group of collaborators involved James Trevelyan acknowledges Surya Singh for de- in the EU projects PHRIENDS, VIACTORS, and tailed suggestions on the original draft, and would also SAPHARI. We want to particularly thank Etienne Bur- like to thank the many unnamed mine clearance experts det, Federico Carpi, Manuel Catalano, Manolo Gara- who have provided guidance and comments over many bini, Giorgio Grioli, Sami Haddadin, Dominic Lacatos, years, as well as Prof. S. Hirose, Scanjack, Way In- Can zparpucu, Florian Petit, Joshua Schultz, Nikos dustry, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and Total Marine Tsagarakis, Bram Vanderborght, and Sebastian Wolf for Systems for providing photographs. their substantial contributions to this chapter and the William R. Hamel would like to acknowledge work behind it. the US Department of Energy’s Robotics Crosscut- ting Program and all of his colleagues at the na- C.29 Inertial Sensing, GPS and Odometry tional laboratories and universities for many years by Gregory Dudek, Michael Jenkin of dealing with remote hazardous operations, and all We would like to thank Sarah Jenkin for her help with of his collaborators at the Field Robotics Center at the figures. Carnegie Mellon University, particularly James Os- born, who were pivotal in developing ideas for future D.36 Motion for Manipulation Tasks telerobots. by James Kuffner, Jing Xiao Sungchul Kang acknowledges Changhyun Cho, We acknowledge the contribution that the authors of the Woosub Lee, Dongsuk Ryu at KIST (Korean Institute first edition made to this chapter revision, particularly for Science and Technology), Korea for their provid- Sect.
    [Show full text]
  • Adaptive Gait Pattern Generation of a Powered Exoskeleton by Iterative Learning of Human Behavior
    2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) October 25-29, 2020, Las Vegas, NV, USA (Virtual) Adaptive Gait Pattern Generation of a Powered Exoskeleton by Iterative Learning of Human Behavior Kyeong-Won Park, Jeongsu Park, Jungsu Choi, and Kyoungchul Kong Abstract— Several powered exoskeletons have been developed aspect, a number of powered exoskeletons are currently and commercialized to assist people with complete spinal cord being developed such as ReWalk manufactured by ReWalk injury. For motion control of a powered exoskeleton, a normal Robotics[6], [7], Ekso manufactured by Ekso Bionics[8] and gait pattern is often applied as a reference. However, the physical ability of paraplegics and the degrees of freedom of Indego manufactured by Parker Hannifin[9]. powered exoskeletons are totally different from those of people Powered exoskeletons developed further apply the pre- without disabilities. Therefore, this paper introduces a novel defined joint angle trajectories such as the joint angle tra- gait pattern depart from the normal gait, which is proper jectories of people without disabilities (i.e., the normal gait to the paraplegics. Since a human is included, the system of pattern) as a reference[10], because the normal gait pattern the powered exoskeleton has lots of motion uncertainties that may not be perfectly predicted resulting from different physical is effective to increase the gait speed with minimal energy properties of paraplegics (SCI level, muscular strength of the consumption in case of the person without disabilities[11]. upper body, body parameters, inertia), actions from crutches The physical characteristics of the people with paraplegia, (position and timing to put), several types of training (period, however, is completely different from that of the people methodology), etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Development of Varileg, an Exoskeleton with Variable Stiffness Actuation: First Results and User Evaluation from the CYBATHLON 2016 Stefan O
    Schrade et al. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation (2018) 15:18 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-018-0360-4 RESEARCH Open Access Development of VariLeg, an exoskeleton with variable stiffness actuation: first results and user evaluation from the CYBATHLON 2016 Stefan O. Schrade1* , Katrin Dätwyler1, Marius Stücheli2, Kathrin Studer1, Daniel-Alexander Türk2, Mirko Meboldt2, Roger Gassert1 and Olivier Lambercy1 Abstract Background: Powered exoskeletons are a promising approach to restore the ability to walk after spinal cord injury (SCI). However, current exoskeletons remain limited in their walking speed and ability to support tasks of daily living, such as stair climbing or overcoming ramps. Moreover, training progress for such advanced mobility tasks is rarely reported in literature. The work presented here aims to demonstrate the basic functionality of the VariLeg exoskeleton and its ability to enable people with motor complete SCI to perform mobility tasks of daily life. Methods: VariLeg is a novel powered lower limb exoskeleton that enables adjustments to the compliance in the leg, with the objective of improving the robustness of walking on uneven terrain. This is achieved by an actuation system with variable mechanical stiffness in the knee joint, which was validated through test bench experiments. The feasibility and usability of the exoskeleton was tested with two paraplegic users with motor complete thoracic lesions at Th4 and Th12. The users trained three times a week, in 60 min sessions over four months with the aim of participating in the CYBATHLON 2016 competition, which served as a field test for the usability of the exoskeleton. The progress on basic walking skills and on advanced mobility tasks such as incline walking and stair climbing is reported.
    [Show full text]