Simulation research on assistive system for spinal cord injury patients based on a foot control strategy

The study was involving in the feasibility of applying foot control strategy on over-ground locomotor mobility assistances for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) and the advantages of the foot-driven mobility assistance through comparing with the hip-knee-driven mode. The differences of lower limb joint angles between normal gait and slide-like gait were investigated by simulation, comparison analysis and experiments. The results show that developing a foot-driven mobility assistance based on slide-like gait is feasible. The analyses on kinematical normal gait and slide-like gait model suggest that the foot-driven assistance can provide multiple movement patterns despite increasing the kinematic complexity and the joint torque of slide-like gait is smaller than that of normal gait. The foot-driven mobility assistance is easier-to-use for SCI patients than hip-knee-driven assistance on gait differences. Therefore, the foot-driven mobility assistance could be an alternative walking-assisted mode for patients suffering from weak lower limb function and unsatisfactory rehabilitation.