The purpose of this basic engineering research is to produce an instrument that will provide for control of leg muscle movement in patients who have incurred irreparable damage to the nervous system eg.,stroke and spinal-cord injury. The system will be novel in two ways: 1. A predetermined sequence of electrical signals will be used to stimulate the muscles of the lower limbs to provide a walking motion. 2. A method will be used to predict when the leg muscles are becoming fatigued. This aspect of the research is very important since the patient can not "feel" the "pain" which normally accompanies fatigue and, thus, cannot order the instrument to stop. The basic engineering component of this research has reached an appropriate level of sophistication that patient trials have begun. During the next two years, the engineering component will have been completed; NSF should terminate its advocacy role, and the principal investigator should continue his research under the support of a clinically oriented agency or industry.
