Patent ID: 7153242

Claim:
A gait-locomotor apparatus for support gait, stance and climb, and transitions between lie-sit-stance positions of a person with a locomotion disability, the apparatus comprising: an exoskeleton bracing system comprising jointed support arms for coupling to the trunk of the body and lower limbs of the person; propulsion means coupled to the exoskeleton bracing system, for providing relative movement between said segments to parts of the exoskeleton bracing system; a plurality of sensors for sensing tilt of the trunk and angular position of parts of exoskeleton bracing system; a control unit for receiving information from said plurality of sensors, and for identifying the relative position of parts of the exoskeleton bracing system, the tilt of the person with respect to the ground and gait phases or other phases of modes of operation, a current mode of operation being manually set by the person by an interface into the control unit, processing information in accordance with the current mode of operation and activating and controlling the propulsion system in accordance with a set of predefined movement modes or patterns; whereby the apparatus establishes a man-machine interface relation with the person with the locomotion disability, and aids the person in acquiring locomotion as desired.