Research on Gait Change Using Visual and Force Sensory Stimuli Presentation System

In human physical activity, motion and sensation affect each other. By utilizing this interaction and appropriately controlling and presenting sensory input during exercise with an external device, it is expected that training will become more efficient and exercise performance will improve. This study proposes a novel visual and force sensory stimulus presentation system using a pneumatically driven gait assistive suit and a head-mounted display (HMD). We aim to develop a gait simulator that realizes the same training effect as walking in various environments by presenting designed sensory stimuli with external devices to solve the spatial limitation of gait training. As an application example of the proposed system, the gait assistive suit applies loads to the legs of a subject walking on flat ground, and an HMD is used to show images of the slope climbing, allowing the subject to virtual experience climbing a slope. In the experimental validation, four subjects measured the average muscle load and leg motion trajectory during virtual slope climbing using the proposed system. We compared the above results with other experimental conditions: (i) normal flat ground walking, (ii) normal slope walking, and (iii) walking with force presentation only. As a result, we confirmed that the root mean square of the myoelectric potential at the front thigh for all four subjects approached the result of normal climbing when the proposed system was used.