Synthesis of a Rehabilitation Mechanism Replicating Normal Gait

Effective gait rehabilitation is challenging, often requiring strenuous effort from a therapist, or expensive technology, or both. One rehabilitation method involves assisting the patient’s foot through a gait-like trajectory. While numerous devices have been developed to address the gait training needs of adults, these tools do not always scale well to meet the needs of a child’s smaller body size. This paper describes the development of a gait-guidance device that could be scaled to address the gait retraining needs of individuals of vary body sizes from a child to an adult.