Controlling the human-robot interaction for robotic rehabilitation of locomotion

The research work reported in this article aims at improving the robotic rehabilitation of locomotion employed at our rehabilitation center Paracare (University Hospital Balgrist, Zurich). Two algorithms have been developed and tested in simulations and actual experiments that estimate the human-robot interaction and by this means allow for automatic gait-pattern adaptation during the rehabilitation training. Thus, the patient is able to voluntarily influence the way he/she is walking on the treadmill, which increases his/her motivation and active rehabilitation effort. If the latter has a potential to further improve the rehabilitation outcome will be a subject of our further investigations in clinical studies. The focus of this article will be on the adaptation algorithms.