Abstract
This study introduces the development of a new body weight support system using pneumatic actuators for gait training. The main scope of this work is to provide a new design, validation, and assessment for active body weight support systems to reproduce a subject’s normal walking behavior. Based on the assessments and its evaluations, the novel body weight support system using pneumatic muscle actuators shows many advantageous characteristics, such as simplicity, low cost, maintenance of a constant unloading force, and ease of control of the supported force. The capability of the novel body weight support system to generate unloading forces that track the center of pressure, because it switches from left to right and vice versa as the subject walks, is especially interesting.
Highlights
In recent years, body weight support (BWS) systems have been developed and proven to improve gait training systems for patients who recover from spinal cord injuries or strokes
Based on the experimental results performed with two BWS systems, we conclude that the novel BWS system successfully realizes weight support
One of the most important points of the proposed BWS system is that the new system could follow the center of pressure (COP) during a subject’s walk and provide the desired unloading force
Summary
Body weight support (BWS) systems have been developed and proven to improve gait training systems for patients who recover from spinal cord injuries or strokes. Development of active systems can overcome almost all the limitations of passive systems They ensure constant weight support by combining a closed-loop control system with a dynamic roller[13,17] or electromagnetic motor.[5] almost all active systems, which apply the inherent structure in which a very complex and cumbrous actuators are connected to the subject’s trunk through a pulley–rope mechanism, have the disadvantage of potentially swinging the subject using these systems. When the left leg is on the stance phase, the COP takes time to travel along
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