Robotic Walking Training Device for Rehabilitation

Partial paralysis caused by spinal cord injury (SCI) or stroke are two of the most prevalent forms of physical disability. It is estimated between 232,000 to 316,000 people have a SCI, and approximately 795,000 people have a new or recurrent stroke annually. More than 50% of stroke victims have difficulty walking, and greater than 90% of SCI patients lose sensory and motor control of their lower limbs. The goal of the Robotic Walking Training device is to build and optimize a training device that can accurately recreate the motion of a gait path. It will also incorporate the use of a Functional Electrical Stimulation to allow for more efficient and effective retraining of neural pathways. To recreate the gait paths, data was collected of a natural walking gait path. The use of FES will be used in sync with the gait cycle to stimulate the muscle at the appropriate timing.