Design of Functional Electrical Stimulation Cycling System for Lower-Limb Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients

The active participation of the stroke survivor during Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) cycling system is an interesting question that we would like to investigate, since active rehabilitation can promote a better motor function recovery than passive training. In this pilot study, a smart FES cycling system which can assess the participants cycling effort was proposed to record real-time Electromyography (EMG) and torque during lower limb training for chronic stroke survivors. The rehabilitation goals were to increase the lower-limb muscle strength and enhance the muscle coordination. Chronic stroke patients (n=6) with gait impairment and moderate motor disability were recruited to evaluate the functionality of the system. The system was composed of a modified station bike with an adjustable chair, a programmable functional electrical stimulator, a step motor, a torque sensor, and a surface electromyography (EMG) amplifier. Four-channel FES and EMG electrodes were placed at quadriceps (QC), hamstrings (HS), tibialis anterior (TA) and gastrocnemius (GL) to exert stimulation. We adopted two measurements, clinical assessment scores and symmetric index (SI), to evaluate the training effects. The experimental results showed the proposed cycling system could improve the participants walking ability (p=.046) and enhance balance of the muscle coordination (p=.042) after training.