Exercise devices – Involving user translation or physical simulation thereof – Occupant suspended from above for foot travel
Patent
1997-03-10
1997-12-09
Apley, Richard J.
Exercise devices
Involving user translation or physical simulation thereof
Occupant suspended from above for foot travel
A63B 2200
Patent
active
056954328
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arrangement for practising walking.
More particularly, the invention relates to such an arrangement of the kind, comprising a powered treadmill, serving as a walking substrate, and means for unloading a patient standing on the treadmill of at least a portion of his body weight, said means comprising a harness which may be mounted on the patient and a suspension cable which may be connected to the harness with its one end and which extends from said end in an upward direction to a first pulley or other diversion means and then to a device by which a lifting force of an adjustable magnitude may be applied on the patient through the cable and the harness.
Arrangements of the above kind may be utilized for practising walking by patients having a reduced walking capability, caused by an illness or an accident, for instance by stroke patients suffering from hemiparesis. A special advantage of these arrangements is that the walking practice may be started at a very early stage and that it may be effected with a minimum effort of assisting personnel. Moreover, the arrangements may be made compact enough to make it possible, without difficulty, to install them also in relatively small treatment rooms.
2. Prior Art
Previously known arrangements of the above kind have been of primarily two different types. In arrangements of the first type, the magnitude of the lifting force is set by the step of, after having placed the patient standing on the treadmill, securing the cable against movement in its longitudinal direction in a position in which it applies the desired lifting force on the patient. When the treadmill is started and the patient begins to carry out walking movements thereon, the fact that the harness is held fixed at a constant level by the cable results in that the movements of the patient will cause a substantial variation in the magnitude of the lifting force applied on the patient. This results in that the patient will move according to a pattern which is strongly distorted in relation to a normal walking pattern.
In arrangements of the second type, a substantial improvement of the walking pattern of the patient is obtained as a consequence of the fact that the cable is not secured against movements in its longitudinal direction but instead, at its end distant from the harness, loaded by a counterweight of variable size which produces the desired lifting force. The movement pattern of the patient is hereby substantially improved. However, even in this case, it will deviate from the normal walking pattern. The reason is that the movements of the patient transmitted to the counterweight through the cable will give rise to acceleration and retarding forces which are caused by the high mass of the counterweight and which are superimposed on the lifting force, which is dependent on the weight of the counterweight, and which result in that the patient will move in an affected manner.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has for its purpose to provide an improved arrangement of the kind initially specified, in which the lifting force may be maintained substantially constant despite the movements carried out by the patient.
The arrangement according to the invention proposed for said purpose is primarily characterized in that said device comprises a second pulley or other diversion means around which the cable extends in a bight on its way from the first pulley to an anchoring means for its other end, the second pulley being arranged for limited movement in a direction transverse to its rotary axis in order to permit a limited variation in the length of said bight of the cable, and the second pulley being subjected to the action of an elastically yieldable force generating means which is arranged to apply an adjustable force, substantially indepedent of the instantaneous position of the second pulley, on said pulley in a direction to cause said bight of the cable to assume its maximum length.
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patent: 5050590 (1991-09-01), Futakami
patent: 5221241 (1993-06-01), Bare
patent: 5273502 (1993-12-01), Kelsey et al.
Apley Richard J.
Richman Glenn E.
Tran.ang.s Rostfria AB
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