Tagoe Emmanuella A, Fang Ying, Williams Jack R, Lerner Zachary F
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northern Arizona University; Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA. She is now with the Rosalind Franklin University, North Chicago, IL USA.
IEEE Trans Med Robot Bionics. 2024 Feb;6(1):202-212. doi: 10.1109/tmrb.2023.3328649. Epub 2023 Oct 31.
Despite medical treatment focused on addressing walking disability, many millions of people with neurological conditions, like cerebral palsy (CP), struggle to maintain independent mobility. Lower limb exoskeletons and exosuits may hold potential for augmenting walking ability. However, it remains unknown whether these wearable robots are safe and beneficial for use outside of highly controlled laboratory environments, the demonstration of which is necessary for clinical translation. Here, we show that a lightweight, portable, ankle exoskeleton with an adaptable one-size-works-for-all assistance controller can improve energy efficiency and walking speed for individuals with CP spanning a wide spectrum of lower limb impairment in a multi-terrain real-world environment. Tested on an outdoor walking route with level, sloped, and stair terrain, robotic assistance resulted in a 15-18% (p = 0.013-0.026) reduction in estimated energy cost and a 7-8% (p = 0.001-0.004) increase in average walking speed across "shorter" 6-minute and "longer" 20-minute walking durations relative to unassisted walking. This study provides evidence that wearable robots may soon improve mobility in neighborhood, school, and community settings for individuals with CP.
尽管针对行走障碍的医学治疗已受到关注，但数百万患有神经系统疾病（如脑瘫）的人仍难以保持独立行动能力。下肢外骨骼和外骨骼套装可能具有增强行走能力的潜力。然而，这些可穿戴机器人在高度受控的实验室环境之外使用是否安全且有益尚不清楚，而这一点对于临床转化是必要的。在此，我们展示了一种轻便、便携的脚踝外骨骼，其配备了适用于所有人的自适应辅助控制器，在多地形现实环境中，能够提高患有各种下肢损伤的脑瘫患者的能量效率和行走速度。在包含平地、斜坡和楼梯地形的户外行走路线上进行测试时，与无辅助行走相比，机器人辅助使“较短”6分钟和“较长”20分钟步行时长的估计能量消耗降低了15 - 18%（p = 0.013 - 0.026），平均行走速度提高了7 - 8%（p = 0.001 - 0.004）。这项研究提供了证据，表明可穿戴机器人可能很快就能改善脑瘫患者在邻里、学校和社区环境中的行动能力。
