Can't find any pictures of this or how it would help balance.
Equilivest: A Robotic Vest to aid in Post-Stroke Dynamic Balance Rehabilitation
Franco Paviotti1, Esteban Buniak 2, Rodrigo Ramele 3, Orestes Freixes4 and Juan Miguel Santos5
Index Terms—Stroke, Dynamic Balance, Neurorehabilitation,
Biofeedback, Vibrotactile
I. INTRODUCTION
Brain stroke is a devastating medical condition, that af-
fects world population and is the main cause of disabilities
worldwide [1]. Disabilities related to stroke can affect motor
pathways, and may lead to several motor function disorders.
One important aspect of motor function is balance which is
the ability to control the body’s center of mass inside the
base support provided by the lower limb [2]. Stroke can
affect dynamic balance as well, which is manifested while
walking, impairing autonomy and independence, important
factors in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) particularly for
young patients [3], [4].
Strong evidence suggests that neuroplasticity can be en-
hanced by neural rehabilitation [5], [6]. These procedures
are aimed to relearn movements that can trigger new neural
pathway generation which reroute, or even completely replace,
those pathways that were damaged by the stroke. Recently,
biofeedback techniques aiming to provide extra information to
the patient to aid in the relearning, have appeared as a com-
plementary treatment to increase neuralplasticity. These are in
the form of Wearable devices-based biofeedback rehabilitation
(WDBR) [7] or robotic rehabilitation gait devices [8]–[10].
Therefore, the addition of an independent and new periph-
eral therapeutic signal, that can be assimilated as an extrasen-
sory input [11], could improve dynamic balance performance
on post-stroke patients which may have yet insufficiency to
deal properly with the complexities of walking. Meaningful
balance information, in terms of timing and location, can pro-
vide this extra signal in any form of stimulation, particularly
vibrotactile feedback (VF) [12]. Although the effectiveness of
biofeedback on static balance has been studied more exten-
sively in the literature [5], to the best of our knowledge works
dealing with dynamic balance problems while walking have
been more scarce.
This work presents the development of a device which is
grounded on this idea, and aims to help a post-stroke patient
1F. Paviotti, 2E.Buniak and 3R.Ramele are with the Instituto
Tecnol ́ogico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) Buenos Aires, Argentina
{fpaviotti|ebuniak|rramele}@itba.edu.ar
4O. Freixes is with the CINER Centro Integral de Neurorehabilitaci ́on,
Buenos Aires, Argentina orestesfreixes@gmail.com
5J.M. Santos is with the UNAHUR Universidad Nacional de Hurlingham,
Buenos Aires, Argentina juan.santos@unahur.edu.ar
This extended abstract was presented at the Workshop on Assistive
Robotic Systems for Human Balancing and Walking: Emerging Trends
and Perspectives at IROS2022.
with a remaining dynamic balance problem, presenting it as
a case study. The proposed development is implemented as a
smart-vest [11], which we will call, Equilivest, that address
three possible clinical hypothesis of the underlying problem.
We aim to provide motor learning, meaning to generate an
assist-as-needed [13], [14] vibrotactile feedback signal which
initially promotes voluntary control over movements of the
joints [12], but which fades away to encourage automatism [4],
[15]. The device aims to increase plasticity by producing tim-
ing vibrotactile stimulation based on kinematic and dynamics
measurements.
I
Index Terms—Stroke, Dynamic Balance, Neurorehabilitation,
Biofeedback, Vibrotactile
I. INTRODUCTION
Brain stroke is a devastating medical condition, that af-
fects world population and is the main cause of disabilities
worldwide [1]. Disabilities related to stroke can affect motor
pathways, and may lead to several motor function disorders.
One important aspect of motor function is balance which is
the ability to control the body’s center of mass inside the
base support provided by the lower limb [2]. Stroke can
affect dynamic balance as well, which is manifested while
walking, impairing autonomy and independence, important
factors in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) particularly for
young patients [3], [4].
Strong evidence suggests that neuroplasticity can be en-
hanced by neural rehabilitation [5], [6]. These procedures
are aimed to relearn movements that can trigger new neural
pathway generation which reroute, or even completely replace,
those pathways that were damaged by the stroke. Recently,
biofeedback techniques aiming to provide extra information to
the patient to aid in the relearning, have appeared as a com-
plementary treatment to increase neuralplasticity. These are in
the form of Wearable devices-based biofeedback rehabilitation
(WDBR) [7] or robotic rehabilitation gait devices [8]–[10].
Therefore, the addition of an independent and new periph-
eral therapeutic signal, that can be assimilated as an extrasen-
sory input [11], could improve dynamic balance performance
on post-stroke patients which may have yet insufficiency to
deal properly with the complexities of walking. Meaningful
balance information, in terms of timing and location, can pro-
vide this extra signal in any form of stimulation, particularly
vibrotactile feedback (VF) [12]. Although the effectiveness of
biofeedback on static balance has been studied more exten-
sively in the literature [5], to the best of our knowledge works
dealing with dynamic balance problems while walking have
been more scarce.
This work presents the development of a device which is
grounded on this idea, and aims to help a post-stroke patient
1F. Paviotti, 2E.Buniak and 3R.Ramele are with the Instituto
Tecnol ́ogico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) Buenos Aires, Argentina
{fpaviotti|ebuniak|rramele}@itba.edu.ar
4O. Freixes is with the CINER Centro Integral de Neurorehabilitaci ́on,
Buenos Aires, Argentina orestesfreixes@gmail.com
5J.M. Santos is with the UNAHUR Universidad Nacional de Hurlingham,
Buenos Aires, Argentina juan.santos@unahur.edu.ar
This extended abstract was presented at the Workshop on Assistive
Robotic Systems for Human Balancing and Walking: Emerging Trends
and Perspectives at IROS2022.
with a remaining dynamic balance problem, presenting it as
a case study. The proposed development is implemented as a
smart-vest [11], which we will call, Equilivest, that address
three possible clinical hypothesis of the underlying problem.
We aim to provide motor learning, meaning to generate an
assist-as-needed [13], [14] vibrotactile feedback signal which
initially promotes voluntary control over movements of the
joints [12], but which fades away to encourage automatism [4],
[15]. The device aims to increase plasticity by producing tim-
ing vibrotactile stimulation based on kinematic and dynamics
measurements.
I
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