Robot supported gait rehabilitation: Clinical needs, current state of the art and future

Abstract

Rehabilitation robots have made their way into clinical practice and are being readily used in the routine rehabilitation treatment of people with disabilities following neurological insult/disease. Currently, rehabilitation robots for training walking have limited number of mechanical degrees of freedom thus enabling also limited scope of gait training, limited to training of cyclical leg movement in the plane of progression. Efficient training of proper weight shifting, overall dynamic balance as well as turning capabilities is currently poorly incorporated in contemporary rehabilitation robots. In this paper we propose two conceptual approaches of mechanical devices that may overcome limited factors listed above. We further discuss possible control approaches for the presented concepts that will inevitably have to include some degree of cognitive abilities in future rehabilitation robotic devices.