Haufe Florian L, Kober Alessia M, Schmidt Kai, Sancho-Puchades Alejandro, Duarte Jaime E, Wolf Peter, Riener Robert
IEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot. 2019 Jun;2019:944-949. doi: 10.1109/ICORR.2019.8779375.
Wearable robots for the legs have been developed for gait rehabilitation training and as assistive devices. Most devices have been rigid exoskeletons designed to substitute the function of users who are completely paralyzed. While effective for this target group, exoskeletons limit their users' contributions to movements. Soft wearable robots have been suggested as an alternative that allows, and requires, active contributions from users with residual mobility.In this work, we first tested if the MyoSuit, a lightweight, lower-limb soft wearable robot, affected the walking kinematics of unimpaired users. Secondly, we evaluated the assistance delivered to a patient with a gait impairment.In our first study, 10 unimpaired participants walked on a treadmill at speeds between 0.5 and 1.3 m/s. We found that wearing the MyoSuit in its transparency mode did not affect the participants' walking kinematics (RMS difference of joint angles < 1.6°). Step length and the ratio of stance-to-stride duration were not affected when wearing the MyoSuit.In our case study with one spinal cord injured participant, the MyoSuit supported the participant to increase his 10 MWT walking speed from 0.36 to 0.52 m/s, a substantial clinically meaningful improvement.Our results show that the MyoSuit allows user-driven, kinematically unaltered walking and provides effective assistance. Systems like the MyoSuit are a promising technology to bridge the gap between rigid exoskeletons and unassisted ambulation.
用于腿部的可穿戴机器人已被开发用于步态康复训练和作为辅助设备。大多数设备都是刚性外骨骼，旨在替代完全瘫痪用户的功能。虽然对外骨骼对这个目标群体有效，但它限制了用户对运动的贡献。软可穿戴机器人已被提议作为一种替代方案，它允许并要求有残余运动能力的用户积极参与。在这项工作中，我们首先测试了一种轻便的下肢软可穿戴机器人MyoSuit是否会影响未受损用户的步行运动学。其次，我们评估了对一名步态受损患者提供的辅助。在我们的第一项研究中，10名未受损的参与者在跑步机上以0.5至1.3米/秒的速度行走。我们发现，以透明模式穿着MyoSuit不会影响参与者的步行运动学（关节角度的均方根差异<1.6°）。穿着MyoSuit时，步长和站立与步幅持续时间之比不受影响。在我们对一名脊髓损伤参与者的案例研究中，MyoSuit帮助该参与者将其10米步行试验的行走速度从0.36米/秒提高到0.52米/秒，这是临床上有意义的显著改善。我们的结果表明，MyoSuit允许用户驱动、运动学上未改变的行走，并提供有效的辅助。像MyoSuit这样的系统是一种很有前途的技术，可弥合刚性外骨骼与无辅助行走之间的差距。
