Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Functional electrical stimulation (FES) uses electrical pulse of low level to stimulate the peripheral nerve of muscles in order to restore the motor functions, and it has already achieved clinical success in area of paraplegic walking. However, the patterns of FES are inflexible, unstable and hard to operate for the end-users at present.
OBJECTIVE: To study the synergistic action of the muscles involved in walking movements for simplifying the design of FES control patterns based on gait analysis and to make the subjects perform expected involuntary walking movements using FES.
METHODS: According to the characteristics of bipedal walking, a method of gait research was proposed based on measurement and analysis of joint angle and electromyography signal. It served for FES system design, which generated the desired stimulation patterns for muscle groups of lower limbs, and realized the corresponding collaborative activation of the muscle groups.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Satisfactory involuntary walking of a healthy subject without self-control was realized using the FES method proposed. The results from the experiment had verified the feasibility of FES in lower limb rehabilitation. It sheds light on more complex FES control methods, and provides experimental support for clinical study on paralyzed patients in future.