WARD: a pneumatic system for body weight relief in gait rehabilitation

Author

Gazzani, Fabio ; Fadda, Antonello ; Torre, Marina ; Macellari, Velio

Author_Institution

Lab. de Ingegneria Biomedica, Inst. Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy

Volume

8

Issue

4

fYear

2000

fDate

12/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

506

Lastpage

513

Abstract

The paper presents Walking Assistance and Rehabilitation Device (WARD), a system for walking rehabilitation devised to relieve the patient of his/her body weight of a constant and prescribed amount by externally supporting the subject at the upper trunk and pelvis level by means of a harness. The system is based on a pneumatic actuator that has proved to be effective at maintaining a constant relief force. The constancy of this force that should be maintained even under high body weight support (BWS) conditions (70-80% of body weight) seems to be important for a correct motor pattern. A law has been identified that may be useful to adjust walking speed as a function of the prescribed BWS. WARD is simple to construct, practical to use, and has been characterized on healthy subjects

Keywords

actuators; biomechanics; handicapped aids; patient rehabilitation; pneumatic systems; WARD; body weight relief; constant relief force; correct motor pattern; gait rehabilitation; harness; healthy subjects; pelvis; pneumatic actuator; pneumatic system; upper trunk; walking speed adjustment; Gravity; Helium; Instruments; Laboratories; Legged locomotion; Orthopedic surgery; Pathology; Pelvis; Pneumatic actuators; Pneumatic systems;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Rehabilitation Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1063-6528

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/86.895954

Filename

895954