Deans' stroke musings: A biologically-inspired multi-joint soft exosuit that can reduce the energy cost of loaded walking

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

A biologically-inspired multi-joint soft exosuit that can reduce the energy cost of loaded walking

You'll have to ask your doctor where to get such a suit. All post-stroke walking is loaded.

A biologically-inspired multi-joint soft exosuit that can reduce the energy cost of loaded walking

Fausto A. Panizzolo,
Ignacio Galiana,
Alan T. Asbeck,
Christopher Siviy,
Kai Schmidt,
Kenneth G. Holt and
Conor J. WalshEmail author

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation201613:43

DOI: 10.1186/s12984-016-0150-9

Received: 11 December 2015

Accepted: 17 April 2016

Published: 12 May 2016

Abstract

Background

Carrying load alters normal walking, imposes additional stress to the musculoskeletal system, and results in an increase in energy consumption and a consequent earlier onset of fatigue. This phenomenon is largely due to increased work requirements in lower extremity joints, in turn requiring higher muscle activation. The aim of this work was to assess the biomechanical and physiological effects of a multi-joint soft exosuit that applies assistive torques to the biological hip and ankle joints during loaded walking.

Methods

The exosuit was evaluated under three conditions: powered (EXO_ON), unpowered (EXO_OFF) and unpowered removing the equivalent mass of the device (EXO_OFF_EMR). Seven participants walked on an instrumented split-belt treadmill and carried a load equivalent to 30 % their body mass. We assessed their metabolic cost of walking, kinetics, kinematics, and lower limb muscle activation using a portable gas analysis system, motion capture system, and surface electromyography.

Results

Our results showed that the exosuit could deliver controlled forces to a wearer. Net metabolic power in the EXO_ON condition (7.5 ± 0.6 W kg⁻¹) was 7.3 ± 5.0 % and 14.2 ± 6.1 % lower than in the EXO_OFF_EMR condition (7.9 ± 0.8 W kg⁻¹; p = 0.027) and in the EXO_OFF condition (8.5 ± 0.9 W kg⁻¹; p = 0.005), respectively. The exosuit also reduced the total joint positive biological work (sum of hip, knee and ankle) when comparing the EXO_ON condition (1.06 ± 0.16 J kg⁻¹) with respect to the EXO_OFF condition (1.28 ± 0.26 J kg⁻¹; p = 0.020) and to the EXO_OFF_EMR condition (1.22 ± 0.21 J kg⁻¹; p = 0.007).

Conclusions

The results of the present work demonstrate for the first time that a soft wearable robot can improve walking economy. These findings pave the way for future assistive devices that may enhance or restore gait in other applications.