Design and experimental evaluation of a low-cost robotic orthosis for gait assistance in subjects with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Robotic gait training after spinal cord injury (SCI) is of high priority to maximize independence and improve the living conditions of these patients. Current rehabilitation robots are expensive and heavy, and are generally found only in the clinic. To overcome these issues, we present the design of a low-cost, low-weight robotic orthosis for subjects with SCI. The paper also presents a preliminary experimental evaluation of the assistive device on a subject with SCI. Results show that gait velocity, stride length and cadence of walking increased (24.11, 7.41 and 15.56 %, respectively) when wearing active orthoses compared to the case with standard passive orthoses.