Speed Adaptation of a Small Size Treadmill Using Impedance Control Approach for Rehabilitation

Automatic speed adaptation in treadmill training plays an important role in gait rehabilitation. To implement automatic speed adaptation of a treadmill belt, we have developed a novel impedance control scheme that accommodates natural movements without mechanical attachments to the user, and can estimate user-treadmill interactive forces to directly detect user intention, while simultaneously maintaining the user's position on the treadmill platform. The experimental results showed that our impedance control scheme can provide a non-intrusive, intuitive method for implementing user-selected speed on a small treadmill. The proposed technique is cost-effective, and could potentially be applied to any type of locomotion interface or gait rehabilitation system, without the use of expensive, sophisticated sensors or special treadmills.

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