Case Study: Comparison between traditional gait rehabilitation programs vs robot enabled treatment programs using nCounters Engineering devices
Gait Training on Treadmill and Robot
Participants: 5
Mean Age: 21 years
Mean BMI: 22kg
Experiment Settings
- Walking speed:1 – 6 km/h
- Treadmill (SportsArt Fitness T652M, Mukilteo, WA, USA)
- Gait exercises on a static robot (Flexbot, Jinho Robot, China)
The vertical ground reaction force (GRF) were measured by nCounters force insoles in which two force sensors were attached to forefoot and heel.
The Results
Walking Tests on Treadmill
All of the vertical GRF-time curves exhibited the classic patterns of walking with double peaked configuration. For walking speed up to 6 km/h, the first peak occurred between 18% and 28% of the total stance time, while the second peak occurred between 70% and 82% of the total stance time.
Gait Exercises on Robot
Most of the GRF-time histories associated with gait speed smaller than 2.2 km/h only exhibited single peak value which located at about 41%-50% of the total stance time. When the cadence was kept at 40 step/min, the vertical PGRF associated with different stride lengths had a strong positive relationship with the gait speed. On the other hand, the PGRF associated with constant stride length (i.e. 69 cm) and various cadence values yielded a positive correlation with the gait speed.
Conclusion
The computational results suggest that static robots can be efficiently used to reduce the risk of bone resorption, and hence prevent development of osteoporosis for motor impaired patients.
For more information, contact Peter Barrett, mobile +61 412540 138.
Author Details:
Guo Shanshan1, Yulong Wangl, Kun Wang1, Jianjun Long1, Xing Lv1, Zhiyong Huang2, Yi Yang3, Saeed Miramini3 and Lihai Zhang3
Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control 0(0) 1-14
! The Author(s) 2018DOI: 10.1177/1461348418816269
journals.sagepub.com/home/lfn
About Us
nCounters Engineering Rehabilitation is a Melbourne-based Australian company that develops, designs, and manufactures innovative electronic biofeedback and treatment devices for rehabilitation clinicians, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists. Our products are designed to aid in the management of gait, balance, and movement for patients following traumatic brain injuries, such as stroke, or lower leg amputations and other orthopaedic surgeries.
Peter Barrett
Director
Peter designs and builds biofeedback products for gait and movement in the orthopaedic and stroke rehabilitation spaces. These devices are programmed for ease of use with built in help touch screens. In all cases data is transferred wirelessly to ensure patient safety.They can store and display data in real time so as to monitor the patient’s overall progress.