User intention driven adaptive gait assistance using a wearable exoskeleton

A user intention based rehabilitation strategy for a lower-limb wearable robot is proposed and evaluated. The control strategy, which involves monitoring the human-orthosis interaction torques, determines the gait initiation instant and modifies orthosis operation for gait assistance, when needed. O...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rajasekaran, Vijaykumar, Aranda López, Juan|||0000-0001-9283-9548, Casals Gelpí, Alicia|||0000-0003-4706-5533
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/83935
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/83935
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27149-1_23
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Robotic exoskeletons
Robotics in medicine
Adaptive control
Exoskeleton
Gait initiation
Gait assistance
Wearable robot
Robòtica en medicina
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Robòtica
Descripción
Sumario:A user intention based rehabilitation strategy for a lower-limb wearable robot is proposed and evaluated. The control strategy, which involves monitoring the human-orthosis interaction torques, determines the gait initiation instant and modifies orthosis operation for gait assistance, when needed. Orthosis operation is classified as assistive or resistive in function of its evolution with respect to a normal gait pattern. The control algorithm relies on the adaptation of the joints’ stiffness in function of their interaction torques and their deviation from the desired trajectories. An average of recorded gaits obtained from healthy subjects is used as reference input. The objective of this work is to develop a control strategy that can trigger the gait initiation from the user’s intention and maintain the dynamic stability, using an efficient real-time stiffness adaptation for multiple joints, simultaneously maintaining their synchronization. The algorithm has been tested with five healthy subjects showing its efficient behavior in initiating the gait and maintaining the equilibrium while walking in presence of external forces. The work is performed as a preliminary study to assist patients suffering from incomplete Spinal cord injury and Stroke.