TY - GEN
T1 - Verification of a Robotic Ankle Exoskeleton Control Scheme for Gait Assistance in Individuals with Cerebral Palsy
AU - Gasparri, Gian Maria
AU - Bair, Michael Owen
AU - Libby, Robert Patrick
AU - Lerner, Zachary Forest
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.
PY - 2018/12/27
Y1 - 2018/12/27
N2 - Walking ability is critically important for pediatric health, well-being, and independence. Children with cerebral palsy (CP), the most prevalent cause of pediatric physical disability, often present pathological gait patterns that negatively impact walking capacity. Reduced function of the muscles surrounding the ankle joint in those with CP also greatly increases the energy cost of transport leading to reduce mobility. Ankle-foot-orthoses show limited effectiveness for clinically relevant improvement in gait mechanics, while orthopedic surgery, muscle injections and physical therapy are unable to completely restore gait function. While wearable exoskeletons hold promise for gait rehabilitation, appropriately controlling the timing and magnitude of powered assistance across individuals and conditions remains a considerable challenge. This work seeks to address this challenge through the design and initial clinical verification of a simple ankle exoskeleton control scheme designed to reduce the metabolic cost of transport during walking in an individual with CP. Preliminary experimental results from instrumented gait analysis following 5 training visits demonstrated a 45% increase in positive ankle power and a 16% reduction in net metabolic rate during walking with the exoskeleton providing powered plantar-flexion assistance compared to walking without the exoskeleton. Future work will expand this investigation to a larger cohort of individuals with CP and across additional modes of locomotion.
AB - Walking ability is critically important for pediatric health, well-being, and independence. Children with cerebral palsy (CP), the most prevalent cause of pediatric physical disability, often present pathological gait patterns that negatively impact walking capacity. Reduced function of the muscles surrounding the ankle joint in those with CP also greatly increases the energy cost of transport leading to reduce mobility. Ankle-foot-orthoses show limited effectiveness for clinically relevant improvement in gait mechanics, while orthopedic surgery, muscle injections and physical therapy are unable to completely restore gait function. While wearable exoskeletons hold promise for gait rehabilitation, appropriately controlling the timing and magnitude of powered assistance across individuals and conditions remains a considerable challenge. This work seeks to address this challenge through the design and initial clinical verification of a simple ankle exoskeleton control scheme designed to reduce the metabolic cost of transport during walking in an individual with CP. Preliminary experimental results from instrumented gait analysis following 5 training visits demonstrated a 45% increase in positive ankle power and a 16% reduction in net metabolic rate during walking with the exoskeleton providing powered plantar-flexion assistance compared to walking without the exoskeleton. Future work will expand this investigation to a larger cohort of individuals with CP and across additional modes of locomotion.
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U2 - 10.1109/IROS.2018.8593904
DO - 10.1109/IROS.2018.8593904
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85055392396
T3 - IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
SP - 4673
EP - 4678
BT - 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2018
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2018
Y2 - 1 October 2018 through 5 October 2018
ER -