Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States, which is significant due to it resulting in fewer than 50% of stroke patients functioning as community walkers. Traditional methods for post-stroke rehabilitation have not been successful at restoring the desired level of walking ability. There is a lack of evidence-based knowledge about characterizing and maximizing walking performance (e.g. walking speed) in patients with post-stroke gait. Our long-term goal is to provide a scientific basis for planning, evaluation, and improvement of gait rehabilitation for individuals with post-stroke hemiparesis.
The purpose of this project is to create a closed-loop control system to synthesize post-stroke gait (Figure 1). We will create closed-loop-controlled, forward dynamic simulations that will reproduce experimentally measured gait kinematics and kinetics of patients with post-stroke gait.