Effects of partial body-weight support and functional electrical stimulation on gait characteristics during treadmill locomotion: Pros and cons of saddle-seat-type body-weight support

Robotic therapy for rehabilitation of the lower extremity is currently in its early stage of development. Aiming at exploring an efficacious intervention for gait rehabilitation, we investigate the characteristics of an end-effector gait-training device that combines saddle-seat-type body-weight-supported treadmill training with functional electrical stimulation (FES). This is a task-oriented approach to restoring voluntary control of locomotion in patients with neuromuscular diseases. We evaluate the differences between walking with saddle-seat-type support and with harness-type support, in terms of personal preference, 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.