WARF TECHNOLOGIES

UW-Madison researchers have developed a powered, instrumented robotic exercise cycle to present cognitively demanding reaching and pedaling tasks in novel haptic mechanical environments in the lower limb. This rehabilitation platform is powered with a servomotor and instrumented with pedal and crank angular encoders, force-torque sensing pedals, and a wireless EMG system. The recumbent posture is used to separate the targeted tasks of motor coordination from the confounding demands of upright balance and weight support. The recumbent posture could also enable robotic rehabilitation earlier in the process of recovery compared to treadmill training or exoskeleton walking. The haptic environments may include impedance-based haptic environments and/or admittance-based haptic environments that challenge perception, cognition, motion planning, and motor control systems.

Lower limb rehabilitation device
Gait and balance training
 

Creates mechanical interactions the user has not experienced before, promoting attention and neural activity to aid the recovery process

Enables goal-directed movement tasks in the lower limb (i.e., reaching tasks) with novel mechanical interactions that elicit motor adaptation

For More Information About the Inventors

• Peter Adamczyk

Publications

• Dawson-Elli AR, Adamczyk PG. Design and Validation of a Lower-Limb Haptic Rehabilitation Robot. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2020;28(7):1584-1594. doi:10.1109/TNSRE.2020.3000735

Tech Fields

• Medical Devices : Accessibility