IEEE trans: Research on a comprehensive gait rehabilitation assistance platform combined with functional electrical stimulation

About two-thirds of stroke survivors have walking disabilities
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Hemiplegia after stroke is usually characterized by impaired balance, asymmetric voluntary movements, and severe muscle weakness or paralysis

As far as muscle stimulation is concerned, most of the FES systems that can be used for foot drop treatment are "open loop", that is, the stimulation intensity, that is, the combination of pulse width and pulse amplitude remains unchanged
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The main limitation of open-loop FES is that it cannot adapt the stimulation intensity to changes in remaining muscle activity and spasticity, which requires frequent manual adjustment of stimulation parameters

Stimulation system

During normal walking, the pelvis forward and backward, side-to-side (lateral) and rotational movement can reduce the movement of the body's center of gravity (COM) in the vertical and horizontal directions, thereby reducing the metabolic cost and the mechanical work exerted on the lower limbs

The system uses a battery-powered FES device (RehaStim, Hasomed GmbH, Germany) to stimulate the ankle dorsiflexor to correct the foot during the swing phase.
The stimulation pulse consists of a 35hz biphasic square wave
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Adjust the force generated by the muscle by changing the pulse width

System flow chart

Analysis of patient data showed that the pace and selected walking speed of all experiments increased from baseline
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For each experiment, the stride time of the paresis side and the non-paresis side is basically the same