Design and evaluation of a knee and ankle joint for the Cloud Walker: a novel passive gait orthosis

Spinal cord injury(SCI) is a life-altering event that often leads to wheelchair confinement and a lifetime of secondary health complications. Gait orthoses aim to restore mobility and improve the quality of life for these individuals. However, they are often rejected due to the high energy expenditure required by the individual. This project...

Real-Life Wheelchair Mobility Metrics from IMUs

Daily wheelchair ambulation is seen as a risk factor for shoulder problems, which are prevalent in manual wheelchair users. To examine the long-term effect of shoulder load from daily wheelchair ambulation on shoulder problems, quantification is required in real-life settings. In this study, we describe and validate a comprehensive and...

Design of Interface for Gait Assessment in Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) occur when damage to any part of the spinal cord is sustained. Depending on what vertebrae segment the injury occurs, the patient will develop paraplegia or tetraplegia and have a complete or incomplete spinal cord injury. After sustaining a spinal cord injury, the patient must undergo rehabilitation. <br/><br/>For...

Hybrid cooling solution for tetraplegics

Hyperthermia is becoming a bigger problem with higher temperatures. It has gotten more attention in the news for the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, and for big marathons where this is becoming an increasing problem. Whereas, able-bodied persons are able to dissipate heat by means of sweating, a tetraplegic most likely cannot. When the lesion...

Automatic versus manual tuning of robot-assisted gait training in people with neurological disorders

Background: In clinical practice, therapists choose the amount of assistance for robot-assisted training. This can result in outcomes that are influenced by subjective decisions and tuning of training parameters can be time-consuming. Therefore, various algorithms to automatically tune the assistance have been developed. However, the...

A robust real-time gait detection method for spinal cord injury rehabilitation

In a recent first-in-human clinical study, a therapy based on targeted epidural electrical stimulation together with body weight support has been validated to restore voluntary locomotion in chronically paralyzed subjects with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). However, the system is currently open-loop controlled, meaning that the stimulation pattern...

An Implantable Spinal Cord Stimulator with Adaptive Voltage Compliance for Freely Moving Rats

When the neural pathway within the spinal cord gets damaged, a person’s ability to initiate loco- motion can be affected. Currently, no restorative treatments exist for individuals that suffer from such an injury. However, recent studies have shown epidural spinal cord stimulation (ESCS) to be a potential option for re-establishing some...

An adaptive neuromuscular controller for assistive lower-limb exoskeletons: A preliminary study on subjects with spinal cord injury

Versatility is important for a wearable exoskeleton controller to be responsive to both the user and the environment. These characteristics are especially important for subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI), where active recruitment of their own neuromuscular system could promote motor recovery. Here we demonstrate the capability of a novel,...

A neurorobotic platform for locomotor prosthetic development in rats and mice

Objectives. We aimed to develop a robotic interface capable of providing finely-tuned, multidirectional trunk assistance adjusted in real-time during unconstrained locomotion in rats and mice. Approach. We interfaced a large-scale robotic structure actuated in four degrees of freedom to exchangeable attachment modules exhibiting selective...

Courtyard rehabilitation

A healing environment for patients with a Spinal Cord Injury in Amsterdam North.

Rehab Center for SCI

EMG patterns during assisted walking in the exoskeleton

Neuroprosthetic technology and robotic exoskeletons are being developed to facilitate stepping, reduce muscle efforts, and promote motor recovery. Nevertheless, the guidance forces of an exoskeleton may influence the sensory inputs, sensorimotor interactions and resulting muscle activity patterns during stepping. The aim of this study was to...

The effect of impedance-controlled robotic gait training on walking ability and quality in individuals with chronic incomplete spinal cord injury: An explorative study

Background There is increasing interest in the use of robotic gait-training devices in walking rehabilitation of incomplete spinal cord injured (iSCI) individuals. These devices provide promising opportunities to increase the intensity of training and reduce physical demands on therapists. Despite these potential benefits, robotic gait-training...

A steering electrode array for selective stimulation of sacral nerve roots

In this work a cylindrical electrode array to be used for electrical stimulation of sacral nerve roots is studied in respect to its ability to achieve selective stimulation of various spatial regions of the nerve bundle. Simulation results achieved on a simplified model consisting of 6 electrodes evenly distributed along the sacral root...