Gait trajectory planning and simulation for the powered gait orthosis

Body weight supported treadmill training (BWSTT) has been conformed to be an effective gait rehabilitation therapy for patients with locomotor disfunction of the lower limbs. A powered gait orthosis (PGO) is being developed, which can guide the patient's legs to move in a preprogrammed physiological gait pattern during BWSTT. This paper proposes a physiological gait trajectory planning method for the PGO. This method is on the basis of clinical gait analysis data and human walking gait cycle. The kinematic model of lower limbs with PGO during BWSTT is constructed and the joint trajectory equations in a gait cycle are derived. The effectiveness of the proposed gait trajectory planning method is confirmed by the simulation examples of three joint trajectories and the stick figure of single leg motion over a gait cycle.