Design and Pilot Study of a Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe

Abstract

Hemiparesis is a frequent and disabling consequence of stroke and can lead to asymmetric and inefficient walking patterns. Training on a split-belt treadmill, which has two separate treads driving each leg at a different speed, can correct such asymmetries post-stroke. However, the effects of split-belt treadmill training only partially transfer to everyday walking over ground and extended training sessions are required to achieve long-lasting effects. Our aim is to develop an alternative device, the Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe (GEMS), that mimics the actions of the split-belt treadmill, but can be used during overground walking and in one’s own home, thus enabling long-term training. The GEMS does not require any external power and is completely passive; all necessary forces are redirected from the natural forces present during walking. Three healthy subjects walked on the shoes for twenty minutes during which one GEMS generated a backward motion and the other GEMS generated a forward motion. Our preliminary experiments suggest that wearing the GEMS did cause subjects to modify coordination between the legs and these changes persisted when subjects returned to normal over-ground walking. The largest effects were observed in measures of temporal coordination (e.g., duration of double-support). These results suggest that the GEMS is capable of altering overground walking coordination in healthy controls and could potentially be used to correct gait asymmetries post-stroke.

Two-Dimensional Kinetic Shape Dynamics: Verification and Application

“…A KS is useful in that it can be utilized to create a desired shape that will yield a predefined kinetic behavior of the shape. The KS concept can be used anywhere that exact position-dependent force redirection is needed, which includes the fields of musical acoustics [16], rehabilitation engineering [17], and prosthetic foot design [18].…”

“…Rolling KSs have been previously simulated in [1], presenting the kinematics of a plate being dispensed by a forced KS. However, this KS simulation was analyzed using a numerical approximation, while the exact solution to this KS dynamics problem was still [17,19]. Figure 3: A physical kinetic shape curve ( ( )) in static equilibrium will react with a defined horizontal (parallel to the ground) force function ( ( )) when a known vertical (perpendicular to the ground) force function ( ( )) is applied to the curve's origin.…”

The musical kinetic shape: A variable tension string instrument

“…Applications of a kinetic shape range from rehabilitation devices [16] to the design of roll over shapes for prosthetics [17,18].…”

Kinetic Shapes: Analysis, Verification, and Applications

“…The GEMS [4,5] is a novel device developed for lower limb rehabilitation, specifically asymmetric gait. The GEMS mimics a split-belt treadmill, that imposes different velocities on each tread, that is used in gait rehabilitation.…”

“…While the physical form of the AS is applicable in many disciplines, such as fluid compression [2] or microbiology [3], it is found to be attractive to mechanical designs where passive rolling or force redirection is desired. Such a design is the gait enhancing mobile shoe (GEMS) [4,5] for gait rehabilitation of individuals with neurological disorders such as stroke. The GEMS mimics a split-belt treadmill (a treadmill with two independently controlled treads) by pushing the individual's foot backward as they step onto the shoe with ASshaped wheels.…”