Enhancing stance phase propulsion during level walking by combining FES with a powered exoskeleton for persons with paraplegia.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a cooperative controller that combines functional electrical stimulation (FES) with a powered lower limb exoskeleton to provide enhanced hip extension during the stance phase of walking in persons with paraplegia. The controller utilizes two sources of actuation: the electric motors of the powered exoskeleton and the user's machine (FSM), a set of FES. It consists of a finite-state machine (FSM), a set of proportional-derivative (PD) controllers for the exoskeleton and a cycle-to-cycle adaptive controller for muscle stimulation. Level ground walking is conducted on a single subject with complete T10 paraplegia. Results show a 34% reduction in electrical power requirements at the hip joints during the stance phase of the gait cycle with the cooperative controller compared to using electric motors alone.