Metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoors
Lower limb robotic exoskeletons are often studied in the context of steady state treadmill walking in a laboratory environment. However, the end goal for exoskeletons is to be used in real world, complex environments. To reach the point that exoskeletons are openly adopted into our everyday lives, w...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2023-07-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/15775.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797417881525288960 |
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| author | Rachel Hybart K. Siena Villancio-Wolter Daniel Perry Ferris |
| author_facet | Rachel Hybart K. Siena Villancio-Wolter Daniel Perry Ferris |
| author_sort | Rachel Hybart |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Lower limb robotic exoskeletons are often studied in the context of steady state treadmill walking in a laboratory environment. However, the end goal for exoskeletons is to be used in real world, complex environments. To reach the point that exoskeletons are openly adopted into our everyday lives, we need to understand how the human and robot interact outside of a laboratory. Metabolic cost is often viewed as a gold standard metric for measuring exoskeleton performance but is rarely used to evaluate performance at non steady state walking outside of a laboratory. In this study, we tested the effects of robotic ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on the cost of transport of walking both inside on a treadmill and outside overground. We hypothesized that walking with the exoskeletons would lead to a lower cost of transport compared to walking without them both on a treadmill and outside. We saw no significant increases or decreases in cost of transport or exoskeleton mechanics when walking with the exoskeletons compared to walking without them both on a treadmill and outside. We saw a strong negative correlation between walking speed and cost of transport when walking with and without the exoskeletons. In the future, research should consider how performing more difficult tasks, such as incline and loaded walking, affects the cost of transport while walking with and without robotic ankle exoskeletons. The value of this study to the literature is that it emphasizes the importance of both hardware dynamics and controller design towards reducing metabolic cost of transport with robotic ankle exoskeletons. When comparing our results to other studies using the same hardware with different controllers or very similar controllers with different hardware, there are a wide range of outcomes as to metabolic benefit. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:24:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-82b5970b61f143799230bd506f693fa7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:24:56Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-82b5970b61f143799230bd506f693fa72023-12-03T11:26:31ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592023-07-0111e1577510.7717/peerj.15775Metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoorsRachel Hybart0K. Siena Villancio-Wolter1Daniel Perry Ferris2J. Crayton Pruitt Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States of AmericaJ. Crayton Pruitt Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States of AmericaJ. Crayton Pruitt Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States of AmericaLower limb robotic exoskeletons are often studied in the context of steady state treadmill walking in a laboratory environment. However, the end goal for exoskeletons is to be used in real world, complex environments. To reach the point that exoskeletons are openly adopted into our everyday lives, we need to understand how the human and robot interact outside of a laboratory. Metabolic cost is often viewed as a gold standard metric for measuring exoskeleton performance but is rarely used to evaluate performance at non steady state walking outside of a laboratory. In this study, we tested the effects of robotic ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on the cost of transport of walking both inside on a treadmill and outside overground. We hypothesized that walking with the exoskeletons would lead to a lower cost of transport compared to walking without them both on a treadmill and outside. We saw no significant increases or decreases in cost of transport or exoskeleton mechanics when walking with the exoskeletons compared to walking without them both on a treadmill and outside. We saw a strong negative correlation between walking speed and cost of transport when walking with and without the exoskeletons. In the future, research should consider how performing more difficult tasks, such as incline and loaded walking, affects the cost of transport while walking with and without robotic ankle exoskeletons. The value of this study to the literature is that it emphasizes the importance of both hardware dynamics and controller design towards reducing metabolic cost of transport with robotic ankle exoskeletons. When comparing our results to other studies using the same hardware with different controllers or very similar controllers with different hardware, there are a wide range of outcomes as to metabolic benefit.https://peerj.com/articles/15775.pdfExoskeletonMetabolicsMyoelectricLower-limb |
| spellingShingle | Rachel Hybart K. Siena Villancio-Wolter Daniel Perry Ferris Metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoors PeerJ Exoskeleton Metabolics Myoelectric Lower-limb |
| title | Metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoors |
| title_full | Metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoors |
| title_fullStr | Metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoors |
| title_full_unstemmed | Metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoors |
| title_short | Metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoors |
| title_sort | metabolic cost of walking with electromechanical ankle exoskeletons under proportional myoelectric control on a treadmill and outdoors |
| topic | Exoskeleton Metabolics Myoelectric Lower-limb |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/15775.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT rachelhybart metaboliccostofwalkingwithelectromechanicalankleexoskeletonsunderproportionalmyoelectriccontrolonatreadmillandoutdoors AT ksienavillanciowolter metaboliccostofwalkingwithelectromechanicalankleexoskeletonsunderproportionalmyoelectriccontrolonatreadmillandoutdoors AT danielperryferris metaboliccostofwalkingwithelectromechanicalankleexoskeletonsunderproportionalmyoelectriccontrolonatreadmillandoutdoors |