Online Gait Detection with an Automatic Mobile Trainer Inspired by Neuro-Developmental Treatment

This paper demonstrates the development of an automatic mobile trainer employing inertial movement units (IMUs). The device is inspired by Neuro-Developmental Treatment (NDT), which is an effective rehabilitation method for stroke patients that promotes the relearning of motor skills by repeated training. However, traditional NDT training is very labor intensive and time consuming for therapists, thus, stroke patients usually cannot receive sufficient rehabilitation training. Therefore, we developed a mobile assisted device that can automatically repeat the therapists’ intervention and help increase patient training time. The proposed mobile trainer, which allows the users to move at their preferred speeds, consists of three systems: the gait detection system, the motor control system, and the movable mechanism. The gait detection system applies IMUs to detect the user’s gait events and triggers the motor control system accordingly. The motor control system receives the triggering signals and imitates the therapist’s intervention patterns by robust control. The movable mechanism integrates these first two systems to form a mobile gait-training device. Finally, we conducted preliminary tests and defined two performance indexes to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed trainer. Based on the results, the mobile trainer is deemed successful at improving the testing subjects’ walking ability.