Current robotic therapy for lower extremities is in its early stage of development. Aiming at exploring an efficacious intervention for gait rehabilitation, we investigate the gait-training device that combines saddle-seat-type body-weight support (BWS), a split-belt treadmill and functional electrical stimulation (FES). The task-oriented approach to restoring voluntary control of locomotion in patients with neuromuscular diseases focuses on three gait functions: (a) balancing, (b) hip extension, and (c) ankle push-off. The two gait functions of (a) and (b) are supported/trained by end-effector intervention combining the saddle-seat-type BWS and a split-belt treadmill, and another function of (c) is supported/trained by muscle intervention electrically stimulating ankle plantar flexion muscles. We evaluate the differences between walking with saddle-seat-type BWS and with harness-type BWS, in terms of the preferred walking speed, profiles of kinematics and ground reaction force, and the effectiveness of FES. The results indicate that the proposed gait-training device maintains subjects in a natural posture and supports important gait functions such as hip extension and ankle push-off effectively, in particular, at slow walking speed. The combined use of saddle-seat-type BWS treadmill training and FES has great potential for the next generation of neurorehabilitation technologies.
