Walking-Assistance Apparatus as a Next-Generation Vehicle and Movable Neuro-Rehabilitation Training Appliance

Mechanical Engineering Letters

Muramatsu

Watanuki

et al. 2015

Self Cite

We developed a walking assistance apparatus which can be used for neuro-rehabilitation of patients. This apparatus assists only the ankle joints of the equipped person while walking. The apparatus attaches the motor on the waist of the equipped person and the flexible shaft transmits the torque of the motor to the self lock less worm gear on the ankle joint. By using this apparatus, the dorsiflexion and plantarflexion of the ankle joint of the equipped patients could be increased while walking. Therefore, the heel contact could be recovered and stumbling could be prevented. Furthermore, the length of the stride of the equipped patients was increased and the posture was raised according to gait training with the apparatus. We found that this apparatus can improve the gait of the equipped person while walking.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Walking assistance apparatus enabled for neuro-rehabilitation of patients and its effectiveness

Mechanical Engineering Letters

Muramatsu

Watanuki

et al. 2015

Self Cite

“…6 [10]. We have developed this walking assistance apparatus and confirmed the effectiveness for an able bodied person by using it.…”

Section: Development Of a Whole Body Motion Support Type Mobile Suitmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…We also developed a mobile lifter system which can bear both the equipped person and the suit as shown in Fig. 7 [10], and can take into account the vertical fluctuation during walking. This suit and the lifter can be used by motor palsy patients, people who have suffered a stroke, patients with spinal-cord-injury, and people with central nerve disorders.…”

Section: Development Of a Whole Body Motion Support Type Mobile Suitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Whole Body Motion Support Type Mobile Suit and Evaluation of Cerebral Activity Corresponding to the Cortical Motor Areas

Saegusa

Yuge

2013

JAMDSM

Self Cite

We developed a new whole body motion support type mobile suit. This suit can be used separately for supporting the upper and/or lower limbs, for assisting in ADL (Activities of Daily Living). We also developed a mobile lifter system which can bear both the equipped person and the suit. This suit and the lifter can be used by motor palsy patients, people who have suffered a stroke, spinal-cord-injury patients, and people with central nerve disorders. Using this device, these patients can recover normal gait with no risk of falling. In this paper, the cerebral activity during walking using the suit and normal gait without the suit are compared. According to multiple trials with the suit on a treadmill, the activities of the premotor area sensory motor cortex decreased. Especially, while walking using the suit for supporting lower limbs without swinging arms, the cerebral activities of most of the areas decreased. This data shows that it bcomes ineffective for patients accustomed to the suit in rehabilitation. However, on the contrary, by walking while swinging bilateral arms (even though these arms were assisted by the suit), the activity in the supplementary motor area increased (this area of the brain is related with memory of motion). Furthermore, the cerebral activities while walking on a treadmill and while walking in a corridor with an outside view were compared using NIRS (Near-Infrared Spectroscopy). From the results of this experiment, we found it is most effective for gait training to actually walk and not stay fixed in one location. We also found it is important for patients to swing their arms during gait training in rehabilitation.

“…10. This apparatus can be combined to a lower limb assistance device (Tanaka, 2012) as shown in Fig. 11, and used for assisting whole body motion (Tanaka, 2013).…”

Section: Mechanism and Control Methods Of The Assistance Apparatus Formentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11, and used for assisting whole body motion (Tanaka, 2013). Even if the apparatus is combined with the walking assistance apparatus (Tanaka, 2012) as shown in Fig. 11, the control system can be used by only connecting.…”

Section: Mechanism and Control Methods Of The Assistance Apparatus Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of an ADL assistance apparatus for upper limbs and evaluation of muscle and cerebral activity of the user

Saegusa

Iwasaki³

et al. 2014

JAMDSM

Self Cite

This assistance apparatus for upper limbs was developed for patients who can control their fingers but they cannot lift up their arms themselves, for example myopathy and hemiplegic patients. The purposes of the research in this paper are as follows: 1) to design the simple shaped arm and make the easy control system taking into account the practical use of patients, 2) to confirm the decrease of muscle activity while using the apparatus as an ADL assistance device for myopathy patients, 3) to grasp the tendency of the cerebral activity while using the apparatus as a Neuro-Rehabilitation assistance device for hemiplegic patients. The mechanism of assistance is utilizes the differential gears to lose the weight and volume of the mechanical arm. That enabled us to configure three motors to drive two DOFs (Degrees of freedom) for the shoulder and one DOF for the elbow around the root of the mechanical arm. The arm can lift up to 4 kgf (39.2 N) at the tip of the extended arm, and each maximum angle velocity is 1.57 rad/sec. This arm has two support trays, for wrist and upper arm. Each tray is equipped with a pressure sensor at the contact point to the user's arm, and by using the measured result of these four sensors, the control computer can learn the status of the user's arms. Furthermore, to realize other ADL (activities of daily living) motions (for instance, eating, writing, putting on making up, wiping his/her face, and so on) themselves, we proposed to control the device using the targeted posture map for the mechanical arm. At first, various desired or necessary postures of the assisted arms for the equipped person are determined, and each posture is defined as a control target. Next, each target (which is relatively close) is mutually connected, and the map can be accomplished. However, most of user can use the device without watching the map, because each target in the map is connected with the input signal of the same direction, which the user wants to move his/her hand. To be able to choose the appropriate input for each patient, various input interfaces, for example, joy-stick, push buttons, sensor glove using bending sensors, and so on, are equipped. The muscle activity while using the device was measured, and compared the %MVC data between using the device or not. As a result, the activity decreased up to 60%, and the effectiveness of this device could be confirmed. Finally, to expand the usage of this apparatus to encompass Neuro-Rehabilitation as well, the cerebral activity while using the device for rehabilitation with a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was measured. Then the data from using the device or not, and input motion from a third person were compared. By using this device, the cerebral activity decreased especially when the target motion was complex. However, when the subject input the motion themselves, the cerebral activity increased more than the data is input by a third person, especially, according to the complexity of the target motion. Therefore, for use in Neuro-Rehabilit...