Voluntary control of wearable robotic exoskeletons by patients with paresis via neuromechanical modeling.
Guillaume Durandau, Dario Farina, Guillermo Asín-Prieto and 5 others
PMID 31315633WHAT IT FOUND
Patients with stroke or spinal cord injury could control a robotic leg exoskeleton from seated knee and ankle movements.
Muscle activity fell with higher assistance, but this small study did not test walking or recovery.
Key findings
01Patients with stroke or spinal cord injury could voluntarily control the exoskeleton knee and ankle joints.
02Higher assistance generally reduced muscle activation and estimated joint moments, especially when participants wore the exoskeleton.
03Higher assistance did not reduce how accurately participants matched the target movements.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was not intended to quantify direct rehabilitation outcomes. Testing was done from a seated position, so it does not show how the system works during walking. The sample was very small, and not every patient completed every test. The paper reports technical measures of muscle activity and joint tracking, not functional patient outcomes. The authors state that noncalibrated models were not tested and model parameters have not been validated against in-vivo values.
Declared interests
The work was funded by the European Research Council.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this exoskeleton improves walking or recovery. The study was a seated feasibility test with very few participants and did not measure clinical rehabilitation outcomes.