Abstract:
Somatosensory feedback provided by skin, joint and muscle’s receptors play an important role to maintain gait balance and allow movements to humans. Amputation i.e., loss of limb or a part of it causes loss of the respective functions and also affects the quality of life of the amputee. Physical rehabilitation of amputees via prosthetic devices is not new but the most difficult task is to help amputees use such devices effectively.
With trans-femoral amputation there is significant loss of proprioceptors. Center of Pressure (COP) is the point of application ground reaction force acts as weighted average of all the forces acting on the body during standing and walking. COP is responsible for an appropriate balance and coordination to be maintained.
In this study, a technique has been devised to map COP in trans-femoral amputees. The COP is mapped with help of a specialized insole that houses piezo resistive sensors. The mapped COP is then transformed into a systematic haptic feedback via a control algorithm generated by microcontroller. This systematic haptic feedback controls the vibro-tactile units placed at specified regions of the stump. Vibro-tactiles units provide output stimulation to the specified region allowing the amputee to get improvised sensation of a compromised gait pattern.
A GUI for clinicians which will help him to get real time awareness of overall walking pattern of amputee and thus guide him accordingly.
In this way we are helping the amputee to get physical feedback from ground to the stump and also helping clinician to train his patient efficiently with minimal time as clinician may be able to analyze walking and standing errors in real time.
