Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Abdikadirova, Banu
• Price, Mark
• Jaramillo, Jonaz Moreno
• Hoogkamer, Wouter
• Huber, Meghan E.

Titel

Gait Adaptation to Asymmetric Hip Stiffness Applied by a Robotic Exoskeleton

Ist Teil von

• IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, 2024, Vol.32, p.791-799

Ort / Verlag

United States: IEEE

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Wearable exoskeletons show significant potential for improving gait impairments, such as interlimb asymmetry. However, a more profound understanding of whether exoskeletons are capable of eliciting neural adaptation is needed. This study aimed to characterize how individuals adapt to bilateral asymmetric joint stiffness applied by a hip exoskeleton, similar to split-belt treadmill training. Thirteen unimpaired individuals performed a walking trial on the treadmill while wearing the exoskeleton. The right side of the exoskeleton acted as a positive stiffness torsional spring, pulling the thigh towards the neutral standing position, while the left acted as a negative stiffness spring pulling the thigh away from the neutral standing position. The results showed that this intervention applied by a hip exoskeleton elicited adaptation in spatiotemporal and kinetic gait measures similar to split-belt treadmill training. These results demonstrate the potential of the proposed intervention for retraining symmetric gait.