TY - GEN
T1 - Evaluation of long-term effect on gait improvement for a soft robotic suit
AU - Jin, Shanhai
AU - Guo, Shijie
AU - Hashimoto, Kazunobu
AU - Yamamoto, Motoji
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for the Adaptable & Seamless Technology Transfer program through Target-driven R&D (AS2415010K) from Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017/7/2
Y1 - 2017/7/2
N2 - Walking ability is positively related to the quality of life of elderly persons. As a walking assistive device, one of the major goals should be to improve walking performance after repeating use of the device. Toward this goal, this paper experimentally evaluates the long-term effect of an authors' soft robotic suit, which has been developed to assist hip flexion for elderly persons in daily activities, on gait improvement in a 80-years-old healthy female subject. Experimental results show that the effects of the robotic suit are twofold. One is the immediate effect of improving lower limb cooperation by the hip flexion assistance. That is, walk ratio of the subject increased at most 14.9 % in the condition of the robotic suit worn and powered on (PON) compared with the condition of robotic suit worn but powered off (POFF). The other one is the long-term effect of increasing motion range of lower limb by rehabilitation training. Namely, as a residual result of the immediate effect, walk ratio in the POFF condition increased 28.6 % after 6-week repeating use of the robotic suit. The results of this study are useful for the development of a training program for the effective use of the robotic suit in gait rehabilitation, and the future development of soft walking assistive devices for gait rehabilitation of elderly persons.
AB - Walking ability is positively related to the quality of life of elderly persons. As a walking assistive device, one of the major goals should be to improve walking performance after repeating use of the device. Toward this goal, this paper experimentally evaluates the long-term effect of an authors' soft robotic suit, which has been developed to assist hip flexion for elderly persons in daily activities, on gait improvement in a 80-years-old healthy female subject. Experimental results show that the effects of the robotic suit are twofold. One is the immediate effect of improving lower limb cooperation by the hip flexion assistance. That is, walk ratio of the subject increased at most 14.9 % in the condition of the robotic suit worn and powered on (PON) compared with the condition of robotic suit worn but powered off (POFF). The other one is the long-term effect of increasing motion range of lower limb by rehabilitation training. Namely, as a residual result of the immediate effect, walk ratio in the POFF condition increased 28.6 % after 6-week repeating use of the robotic suit. The results of this study are useful for the development of a training program for the effective use of the robotic suit in gait rehabilitation, and the future development of soft walking assistive devices for gait rehabilitation of elderly persons.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049983972&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85049983972&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ROBIO.2017.8324655
DO - 10.1109/ROBIO.2017.8324655
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85049983972
T3 - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, ROBIO 2017
SP - 1654
EP - 1658
BT - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, ROBIO 2017
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, ROBIO 2017
Y2 - 5 December 2017 through 8 December 2017
ER -