2023-06-29 06:00:12
What if an ankle brace allowed a victim of a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) to improve their walking autonomy and to be able to walk more comfortably without human accompaniment? This is the challenge launched by a team of multidisciplinary researchers from Harvard (United States) and Waterloo (Canada) universities.
Their flexible exoskeleton prototype, used in a four-week pilot study involving four participants, is described in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. “This small device was not designed to provide high power or perform the movements in place of the person like those, rigid, intended for patients suffering from a spinal cord injury”, says Richard Nuckols of the University of Waterloo’s Systems Design Engineering Department. “It’s about providing just enough assistance to help practice good walking mechanics”without the presence of any human assistance.
To test the effectiveness of this “walking program”, the researchers asked the participants to independently use their device three to five days a week in a location of their choice. “In the past, we and other labs imagined similar devices with researchers, engineers and therapists, but they followed the participant”, explains Richard Nuckols. The novelty here is the promise of autonomy.
During the pilot study, users had to register on a mobile application in order to signal the start and end of their walking session, but also to describe the type of terrain chosen and their perceived state of health. “They could of course contact us directly through the app if needed”, adds Richard Nuckols.
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Data recorded by the multiple sensors onboard the device, as well as evaluations, carried out in the laboratory before and after the four weeks of testing, revealed that two of the four users had improved their walking propulsion by an average of 27%. . In the week following the study, they also walked an average of 4,000 more steps than before the start of the experiment.
preliminary evidence
The researchers bluntly point out the significant biases of their study: the very small number of participants and the absence of a control group, not equipped, to be able to compare the results. However, “This study provides preliminary evidence of the potential of this type of equipment to improve training and rehabilitation within the communitythey explain. The project of this device is in no way to replace clinical therapy or the therapist but to be used as a complement”.
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