Stroke Survivors' Gait Adaptations to a Powered Ankle Foot Orthosis.

Sensors on the gait assisting robot provide large volumes of valuable information on how gait parameters change over time. We have developed key gait evaluation metrics based on the available robot sensor information that may be useful to future researchers. All subjects adapted their gait to the robotic assistance, and many of their key metrics moved closer to typical able body values. This suggests that each subject learned to utilize the assistive moments generated by the robot, despite having no predefined ankle trajectory input from the robot. The security of being harnessed on the treadmill led to more dramatic and favorable results.