Adaptive Oscillator-Based Assistive Torque Control for Gait Asymmetry Correction With a nSEA-Driven Hip Exoskeleton

Gait asymmetry is an important clinical characteristic of the hemiplegic gait most stroke survivors suffered, leading to restricted functional mobility and long-term negative impact on their quality of life. In recent years, robot assistance has been proven able to improve stroke patients&#x2019...

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Main Authors: Yuepeng Qian, Haoyong Yu, Chenglong Fu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2022-01-01
Series:IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9916305/
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author Yuepeng Qian
Haoyong Yu
Chenglong Fu
author_facet Yuepeng Qian
Haoyong Yu
Chenglong Fu
author_sort Yuepeng Qian
collection DOAJ
description Gait asymmetry is an important clinical characteristic of the hemiplegic gait most stroke survivors suffered, leading to restricted functional mobility and long-term negative impact on their quality of life. In recent years, robot assistance has been proven able to improve stroke patients&#x2019; functional walking, but few studies have been conducted to specifically correct gait asymmetry of stroke patients during the whole gait cycle. In this work, an adaptive oscillator-based assistive torque control was developed and implemented on a unilateral hip exoskeleton driven by a novel nonlinear series elastic actuator (nSEA), aiming at correcting gait asymmetry at hip joints during the whole gait cycle. The adaptive oscillator-based gait asymmetry detection method extracted continuous gait phase and gait asymmetry seamlessly, and then the proposed assistive control attempted to correct gait asymmetry by delivering precise assistive torques synchronized with the continuous gait phase of the patients&#x2019; gait. An initial experimental study was conducted to evaluate the proposed assistive control on seven healthy subjects with artificial impairment. The participants walked on a treadmill with assistance from the hip exoskeleton, while artificial impairment was added to mimic the hemiplegic gait with both spacial and temporal asymmetry (such as reduced hip flexion in the impaired side and reduced hip extension in the healthy side). Experimental results suggested the effectiveness of the proposed assistive control in restoring gait symmetry to levels comparable to a normal gait of the participants (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p &lt; 0.05$ </tex-math></inline-formula>).
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spelling doaj.art-de033b07e129422b85fccbf6fb785e942023-06-13T20:08:58ZengIEEEIEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering1558-02102022-01-01302906291510.1109/TNSRE.2022.32138109916305Adaptive Oscillator-Based Assistive Torque Control for Gait Asymmetry Correction With a nSEA-Driven Hip ExoskeletonYuepeng Qian0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5298-1849Haoyong Yu1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9876-4863Chenglong Fu2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8955-5429Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Queenstown, SingaporeDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Queenstown, SingaporeGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Human-Augmentation and Rehabilitation Robotics in Universities, Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, ChinaGait asymmetry is an important clinical characteristic of the hemiplegic gait most stroke survivors suffered, leading to restricted functional mobility and long-term negative impact on their quality of life. In recent years, robot assistance has been proven able to improve stroke patients&#x2019; functional walking, but few studies have been conducted to specifically correct gait asymmetry of stroke patients during the whole gait cycle. In this work, an adaptive oscillator-based assistive torque control was developed and implemented on a unilateral hip exoskeleton driven by a novel nonlinear series elastic actuator (nSEA), aiming at correcting gait asymmetry at hip joints during the whole gait cycle. The adaptive oscillator-based gait asymmetry detection method extracted continuous gait phase and gait asymmetry seamlessly, and then the proposed assistive control attempted to correct gait asymmetry by delivering precise assistive torques synchronized with the continuous gait phase of the patients&#x2019; gait. An initial experimental study was conducted to evaluate the proposed assistive control on seven healthy subjects with artificial impairment. The participants walked on a treadmill with assistance from the hip exoskeleton, while artificial impairment was added to mimic the hemiplegic gait with both spacial and temporal asymmetry (such as reduced hip flexion in the impaired side and reduced hip extension in the healthy side). Experimental results suggested the effectiveness of the proposed assistive control in restoring gait symmetry to levels comparable to a normal gait of the participants (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p &lt; 0.05$ </tex-math></inline-formula>).https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9916305/Rehabilitation roboticsgait asymmetryhip exoskeletonseries elastic actuator (SEA)
spellingShingle Yuepeng Qian
Haoyong Yu
Chenglong Fu
Adaptive Oscillator-Based Assistive Torque Control for Gait Asymmetry Correction With a nSEA-Driven Hip Exoskeleton
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
Rehabilitation robotics
gait asymmetry
hip exoskeleton
series elastic actuator (SEA)
title Adaptive Oscillator-Based Assistive Torque Control for Gait Asymmetry Correction With a nSEA-Driven Hip Exoskeleton
title_full Adaptive Oscillator-Based Assistive Torque Control for Gait Asymmetry Correction With a nSEA-Driven Hip Exoskeleton
title_fullStr Adaptive Oscillator-Based Assistive Torque Control for Gait Asymmetry Correction With a nSEA-Driven Hip Exoskeleton
title_full_unstemmed Adaptive Oscillator-Based Assistive Torque Control for Gait Asymmetry Correction With a nSEA-Driven Hip Exoskeleton
title_short Adaptive Oscillator-Based Assistive Torque Control for Gait Asymmetry Correction With a nSEA-Driven Hip Exoskeleton
title_sort adaptive oscillator based assistive torque control for gait asymmetry correction with a nsea driven hip exoskeleton
topic Rehabilitation robotics
gait asymmetry
hip exoskeleton
series elastic actuator (SEA)
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9916305/
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AT haoyongyu adaptiveoscillatorbasedassistivetorquecontrolforgaitasymmetrycorrectionwithanseadrivenhipexoskeleton
AT chenglongfu adaptiveoscillatorbasedassistivetorquecontrolforgaitasymmetrycorrectionwithanseadrivenhipexoskeleton