This is the second of a pair of papers which describe an investigation into the feasibility of providing artificial balance to paraplegics using electrical stimulation of the paralyzed muscles. By bracing the body above the shanks, only stimulation of the plantar flexors is necessary. This arrangement prevents any influence from the intact neuromuscular system above the spinal cord lesion. In t...

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is used for gait restitution in paraplegic patients. One of the major problems is the heavily increased muscle fatigue due to unphysiological stimulation. As a possible solution, this paper introduces a hybrid neuroprosthesis for the knee joint, where muscle stimulation is complemented by a motor-driven exoskeleton. A control concept based on model predic...

The aims of this study were to identify static and dynamic balance with the addition of weighted vests for the rehabilitation of paraplegic patients. The study was conducted using weighted vest exercises with applied optimal weight ratios. Ten paraplegic patients who use custom orthosis were enrolled for experiments including static standing and dynamic gait with a weighted vest. We set weight ...