Variable Automated Speed Sensing Treadmill (VASST) Rehabilitation System Version 2

Current treadmills both for exercise and rehabilitation use pre-programmed speed control. During the course of exercise, the speed remains constant but would change at pre-programmed times, or when manually directed. Thus treadmills do not match exercise regimes to the subject's behaviour, but instead rigidly forces the subject to continue the exercise without taking into account his demonstrated capability at that point in time.

This rehabilitation device provides safe and adaptive features for retraining of post-stroke patient to enhance their walking experience on treadmill training in order to improve gait and endurance.

This technology consists of multiple smart controllers (32-bit ARM microcontroller) with proprietary sensing for body position, feet position and exercise algorithms that is developed with inputs from clinicians. The tracking process provides continual adjustment of the exercise program, dynamically customizing it to match the subject's physical state during the whole exercise duration. 

This technology is applicable in the following industries:

Rehabilitation

• Help post-stroke patients recover locomotor and walking function.
• Help stroke patients or cardiac patients rebuild endurance

Wellness

• Build up fitness of senior individuals who are not able to use normal exercise treadmills due to increased fall risk or very slow walking speeds.
• Tracking of feet position and also left and right body weight

Ageing populations in this region, and the rest of the world, is increasing the prevalence of stroke. The increasingly large numbers of elderly stroke patients creates an increasing demand for effective rehabilitation for normal walking.

Possible application in sport performance monitoring since the system has the capability to measure some physical measurements such as loading from the harness.

• Superior level of safety against falls during treadmill walking due to exercise algorithm, safety harness and multi-access emergency stop buttons.
• Suitable for rehabilitating both chronic and sub-acute post-stroke patients.
• System is easy to use without complex training.