Challenge-Based Adaptation of Exoskeleton Assistance and Gamified Biofeedback Enables Automated Gait Rehabilitation.

Robotic and biofeedback-assisted interventions are promising alternatives to surgical intervention and supplements for traditional physical therapy for children with gait impairments. This work utilizes a human-in-the-loop optimization strategy to adaptively modulate parameters for a lightweight robotic knee exoskeleton and biofeedback video game to maximize learning potential following the challenge point framework. We tested our approach on three able-bodied participants and one pediatric patient with genu recurvatum, a common walking pattern in children with neurological injuries.

The case against machine vision for the control of wearable robotics: Challenges for commercial adoption.

Deploying machine vision for wearable robot control faces challenges in terms of usability, reliability, privacy, and costs.

Crucial hurdles to achieving human-robot harmony.

Holistic consideration of the human and the robot is necessary to overcome hurdles in human-robot interaction.

Kinematic coordinations capture learning during human-exoskeleton interaction.

Human-exoskeleton interactions have the potential to bring about changes in human behavior for physical rehabilitation or skill augmentation. Despite significant advances in the design and control of these robots, their application to human training remains limited. The key obstacles to the design of such training paradigms are the prediction of human-exoskeleton interaction effects and the selection of interaction control to affect human behavior.

Impact of Gravity Compensation on Upper Extremity Movements in Harmony Exoskeleton.

Robots have been used to offset the limb weight through gravity compensation in upper body rehabilitation to delineate the effects of loss of strength and loss of dexterity, which are two common forms of post-stroke impairments. In this paper, we explored the impact of this anti-gravity support on the quality of movement during reaching and coordinated arm movements in a pilot study with two participants with chronic stroke. The subjects donned the Harmony exoskeleton which supported proper shoulder coordination in addition to providing gravity compensation.

A Modular Design for Distributed Measurement of Human-Robot Interaction Forces in Wearable Devices.

Measurement of interaction forces distributed across the attachment interface in wearable devices is critical for understanding ergonomic physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). The main challenges in sensorization of pHRI interfaces are (i) capturing the fine nature of force transmission from compliant human tissue onto rigid surfaces in the wearable device and (ii) utilizing a low-cost and easily implementable design that can be adapted for a variety of human interfaces. This paper addresses both challenges and presents a modular sensing panel that uses force-sensing resistors (FSRs) combined with robust electrical and mechanical integration principles that result in a reliable solution for distributed load measurement.

Simulating Hemiparetic Gait in Healthy Subjects Using TPAD With a Closed-Loop Controller.

Hemiparetic gait is abnormal asymmetric walking, often observed among patients with cerebral palsy or stroke. One of the major features of asymmetric gait is excessive reliance on the healthy leg, which results in improper load shift, slow walking speed, higher metabolic cost, and weakness of the unused leg. Hence, clinically it is desirable to promote gait symmetry to improve walking.