Study on automatic speed adaptation treadmills

This paper examines and summarizes the research trends in the field of rehabilitation robotics for treadmills that automatically adapt to the walker´s desired speed. Treadmill training is a method of ambulatory rehabilitation for patients who have lost their ambulatory function before or after a joint replacement surgery, or from arthritis, a stroke, or a spinal cord injury. The existing treadmill training method alone has been claimed to have a positive effect on the patient´s condition; during training, however, a problem incurs in which conscious brain functions needed for ambulation when walking or running at a fixed speed are hindered. To solve this problem, we briefly introduce and compare a self-paced treadmill and its methods of use.