Restoring Movement: State of the Art

The state of the art of rehabilitation technology for restoring movement is described in this chapter. The first two sections, Neuroregeneration and Neurorehabilitation, review methods to repair and/or restore natural control by surgical and therapeutic procedures. These techniques fully rely on comprehensive understanding of the organization of the organs and tissues, which are preserved, deprived, or missing after an injury or disease and utilization of the biotechnology to regain lost function. The third section, Neuroprostheses presents the functional electrical stimulation (FES) principles and tools for restoring movement. This is followed by a description of FES systems and a combination of FES with external skeleton orthoses used in humans with motor disability. The section Neuroprostheses also summarizes problems (e.g., muscle fatigue, spasticity, and low energy efficiency when standing and walking) still not resolved, which are preventing wider clinical and home usage at this time. The final section of this Chapter 4 discusses the state of the art of artificial legs, arms, and hands.