DEIM Department of Economics and Management - Industrial Engineering, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy ; MARLab Movement Analysis and Robotics Laboratory - Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation Department, "Bambino Gesù" Children's Hospital, Rome, Italy.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 4;8(9):e73139. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073139. eCollection 2013.
We are designing a pediatric exoskeletal ankle robot (pediatric Anklebot) to promote gait habilitation in children with Cerebral Palsy (CP). Few studies have evaluated how much or whether the unilateral loading of a wearable exoskeleton may have the unwanted effect of altering significantly the gait. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether adding masses up to 2.5 kg, the estimated overall added mass of the mentioned device, at the knee level alters the gait kinematics. Ten healthy children and eight children with CP, with light or mild gait impairment, walked wearing a knee brace with several masses. Gait parameters and lower-limb joint kinematics were analyzed with an optoelectronic system under six conditions: without brace (natural gait) and with masses placed at the knee level (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 kg). T-tests and repeated measures ANOVA tests were conducted in order to find noteworthy differences among the trial conditions and between loaded and unloaded legs. No statistically significant differences in gait parameters for both healthy children and children with CP were observed in the five "with added mass" conditions. We found significant differences among "natural gait" and "with added masses" conditions in knee flexion and hip extension angles for healthy children and in knee flexion angle for children with CP. This result can be interpreted as an effect of the mechanical constraint induced by the knee brace rather than the effect associated with load increase. The study demonstrates that the mechanical constraint induced by the brace has a measurable effect on the gait of healthy children and children with CP and that the added mass up to 2.5 kg does not alter the lower limb kinematics. This suggests that wearable devices weighing 25 N or less will not noticeably modify the gait patterns of the population examined here.
我们正在设计一种儿科外骨骼踝关节机器人（儿科 Anklebot），以促进脑瘫（CP）儿童的步态康复。很少有研究评估可穿戴外骨骼的单侧加载是否会产生不必要的影响，从而显著改变步态。本研究旨在评估在膝关节处增加高达 2.5 公斤的质量（该装置的估计总附加质量）是否会改变步态运动学。十名健康儿童和八名轻至轻度步态障碍的 CP 儿童穿着带有多个质量块的膝部支具行走。使用光电系统在六种情况下分析步态参数和下肢关节运动学：不戴支具（自然步态）和在膝关节处放置质量块（0.5、1.0、1.5、2.0、2.5 公斤）。进行 t 检验和重复测量方差分析，以发现试验条件之间以及加载和未加载腿之间的显著差异。在五种“添加质量”条件下，健康儿童和 CP 儿童的步态参数均未观察到统计学上的显著差异。我们发现健康儿童的自然步态和添加质量条件下膝关节屈曲和髋关节伸展角度以及 CP 儿童的膝关节屈曲角度存在显著差异。这一结果可以解释为膝部支具引起的机械约束的影响，而不是与负载增加相关的影响。该研究表明，支具引起的机械约束对健康儿童和 CP 儿童的步态有可测量的影响，并且高达 2.5 公斤的附加质量不会改变下肢运动学。这表明，重量为 25N 或以下的可穿戴设备不会明显改变这里所研究人群的步态模式。
