Abstract: This paper discusses a brain controlled robotic gait
trainer for neurorehabilitation of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) patients.
Patients suffering from Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) become unable to
execute motion control of their lower proximities due to degeneration
of spinal cord neurons. The presented approach can help SCI patients
in neuro-rehabilitation training by directly translating patient motor
imagery into walkers motion commands and thus bypassing spinal
cord neurons completely. A non-invasive EEG based brain-computer
interface is used for capturing patient neural activity. For signal
processing and classification, an open source software (OpenVibe)
is used. Classifiers categorize the patient motor imagery (MI) into
a specific set of commands that are further translated into walker
motion commands. The robotic walker also employs fall detection
for ensuring safety of patient during gait training and can act as a
support for SCI patients. The gait trainer is tested with subjects, and
satisfactory results were achieved.
Abstract: Recently attention has been focused on incomplete
spinal cord injuries (SCI) to the central spine caused by pressure on
parts of the white matter conduction pathway, such as the pyramidal
tract. In this paper, we focus on a training robot designed to assist with
primary walking-pattern training. The target patient for this training
robot is relearning the basic functions of the usual walking pattern; it is
meant especially for those with incomplete-type SCI to the central
spine, who are capable of standing by themselves but not of
performing walking motions. From the perspective of human
engineering, we monitored the operator’s actions to the robot and
investigated the movement of joints of the lower extremities, the
circumference of the lower extremities, and exercise intensity with the
machine. The concept of the device was to provide mild training
without any sudden changes in heart rate or blood pressure, which will
be particularly useful for the elderly and disabled. The mechanism of
the robot is modified to be simple and lightweight with the expectation
that it will be used at home.