Beyond Assistance: Pediatric Exoskeletons for Gait Rehabilitation
Thomas C. Bulea
Abstract : Wearable exoskeletons provide the opportunity to revolutionize gait training by expanding rehabilitation beyond the clinical environment. New control strategies that emphasize user engagement and volitional activity are necessary to capitalize on this potential. This talk will discuss novel approaches for exoskeleton mediated gait training and their application in children with cerebral palsy, including a dynamic assistance paradigm that forces users to adapt their muscle activity in response to the exoskeleton and real-time adaptive control of exoskeleton assistance based on user effort. Our initial results provide evidence that these approaches are safe, well tolerated and improve volitional function in the short term. If deployed for an extended time period, these changes can be reinforced ultimately resulting in therapeutic benefits in terms of muscle strength, motor coordination and improved walking without the exoskeleton.
Bio : Dr. Thomas C. Bulea is a Staff Scientist in the Functional & Applied Biomechanics Section of the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health and a visiting post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Houston. Dr. Bulea’s research focuses on integration of neural interfacing and functional neuroimaging with rehabilitation robotics to develop new therapeutic tools and interventions for treatment of movement disorders and paralysis. A recent emphasis has been on development of pediatric exoskeletons for children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and muscular dystrophy.
