Impact of Robotic Assistive Forces on the Performance of Activities of Daily Living

This study is a cross-sectional study investigating the impact of assistive forces applied by the body-weight support system "the FLOAT" on the study participants. The study is conducted at the University Hospital Balgrist in Zurich over a period of around 3 years. During this time measurements on approximately 140 able bodied subjects and 60 patients with an incomplete spinal cord injury will take place. The study participants are invited for a single visit of around 140 min duration to the University Hospital Balgrist. During this visit the study participants will repeatedly perform various activities of daily living (free walking, standing up and sitting down, stair climbing and balancing) with and without assistive forces from the body-weight support system. While performing the tasks, the study participants' motions and muscle activities will be measured to evaluate the naturalness of their movements. In addition, the collected data permits us to compare different movement patterns and make conclusions about effective and optimal movement support. Obtaining this knowledge will help us to shape the therapy of these activities to be tailored to the patients and to train these movements with the help of the FLOAT under optimal conditions.