Proposal of a New Walker System with Self-Induced Force Stimulation for Improving Freezing of Gait in Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new walker system for improving Freezing of Gait in Parkinson’s Disease Patients. The system consists of walker with an assistive motor controller with torque sensors and UPS-PD, a pneumatic-based locomotion assistive device. This paper also presents preliminary evaluation of the system, which shows a possibility of estimating the user’s walking period using the torque sensors.