TY - GEN
T1 - Improving transparency of powered exoskeletons using force/torque sensors on the supporting cuffs
AU - Zanotto, Damiano
AU - Lenzi, Tommaso
AU - Stegall, Paul
AU - Agrawal, Sunil K.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Most of the control strategies embedded in recent robotic exoskeletons for rehabilitation and assistance are specific implementations of the well-known 'assistance as needed' paradigm. A key point in the design of these systems is the requirement for the robot to exert negligible interaction forces to the wearer if he/she is performing well. Optimizing transparency of a device is a challenging task: various strategies have been proposed to achieve this goal, involving both the mechanical structure of the robot and the control algorithms. In this work, we propose a simple yet effective approach that requires minimal redesign efforts in the robotic structure and in the controller to be implemented on existing devices. We experimentally validate the method by comparing kinematic, kinetic and electromyo-graphic data collected from 3 healthy subjects as they walked in three different conditions: free treadmill walking, walking in a robotic trainer with a traditional zero-impedance configuration and walking in the same robot with the new zero-impedance configuration. Results show that the novel configuration was capable of effectively reducing the interaction forces and, as a consequence, it affected subjects' natural gait less than the traditional one did.
AB - Most of the control strategies embedded in recent robotic exoskeletons for rehabilitation and assistance are specific implementations of the well-known 'assistance as needed' paradigm. A key point in the design of these systems is the requirement for the robot to exert negligible interaction forces to the wearer if he/she is performing well. Optimizing transparency of a device is a challenging task: various strategies have been proposed to achieve this goal, involving both the mechanical structure of the robot and the control algorithms. In this work, we propose a simple yet effective approach that requires minimal redesign efforts in the robotic structure and in the controller to be implemented on existing devices. We experimentally validate the method by comparing kinematic, kinetic and electromyo-graphic data collected from 3 healthy subjects as they walked in three different conditions: free treadmill walking, walking in a robotic trainer with a traditional zero-impedance configuration and walking in the same robot with the new zero-impedance configuration. Results show that the novel configuration was capable of effectively reducing the interaction forces and, as a consequence, it affected subjects' natural gait less than the traditional one did.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84891051837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84891051837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICORR.2013.6650404
DO - 10.1109/ICORR.2013.6650404
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 24187223
AN - SCOPUS:84891051837
SN - 9781467360241
T3 - IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics
BT - 2013 IEEE 13th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR 2013
T2 - 2013 IEEE 13th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR 2013
Y2 - 24 June 2013 through 26 June 2013
ER -