Hybrid Neuroprosthesis for Lower Limbs

Abstract

Assistive technologies have been proposed for the locomotion of people with spinal cord injury (SCI). One of them is the neuroprosthesis that arouses the interest of developers and health professionals bearing in mind the beneficial effects promoted in people with SCI. Thus, the first session of this chapter presents the principles of human motility and the impact that spinal cord injury causes on a person's mobility. The second session presents functional electrical stimulation as a solution for the immobility of paralyzed muscles. It explains the working principles of constituent modules and main stimulatory parameters. The third session introduces the concepts and characteristics of neural prosthesis hybridization. The last two sessions present and discuss examples of hybrid neuroprostheses. Such systems employ hybrid assistive lower limb strategies to evoke functional movements in people with SCI, associating the motor effects of active and/or passive orthoses to a functional electrical stimulation (FES) system. Examples of typical applications of FES in rehabilitation are discussed.