Design of FES based muscle stimulator device using EMG and insole force resistive sensors for foot drop patients

In the presented research, design of functional electrical stimulation (FES) based muscle stimulator device has been described which is used to correct and enhance the gait activity of foot drop patients. The device mainly comprises of FES unit for electrical pulse generation, an electromyography (EMG) sensor V3 for feedback system and insole force-sensitive resistive sensors (FSR) to control ON/OFF timing of device. The device controls the ankle flexion without excessive eversion or inversion of foot (i.e. balanced flexion) by stimulation of common peroneal nerve and tibialis anterior muscle (TA). The efficiency of device is assessed by evaluating gait temporal and spatial parameters (TSP’s) and 3-dimensional gait kinematics (ankle flexion) of footdrop patients by “Peak Motus Motion Measurement System”. It has been found that use of FES stimulator increases the walking speed by 19%, cadence by 7%, step length by 11% and stride length by 15.5%. In addition, it is also observed that str