Perceived Exertion During Robot-Assisted Gait After Stroke

AbstractThe present study investigated the level of perceived exertion during robot-assisted walking in non-ambulatory stroke survivors. In addition, we studied the relationship between the user’s subjective level of perceived exertion and objective measures of exertion (i.e. oxygen consumption and heart rate). Our results suggest that stroke survivors perceive fully assisted Lokomat walking as extremely light to very light and fully assisted Ekso GT walking as very light to somewhat hard. Weak positive correlations were found between subjective and objective measures of exertion.