Evaluation of Physical Interaction during Walker-Assisted Gait with the AGoRA Walker: Strategies Based on Virtual Mechanical Stiffness

Sensors

卷:21

SergioD. Sierra M¹  CarlosA. Cifuentes¹  Marcela Múnera¹  Thomas Provot²  Maxime Bourgain² 

[1] Department of Biomedical Engineering, Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, Bogotá 111166, Colombia;

[2] EPF—Graduate School of Engineering, F-92330 Sceaux, France;

关键词: physical interaction;    smart walker;    virtual stiffness;    haptic interface;    gait analysis;    assistive robotics;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s21093242

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Smart walkers are commonly used as potential gait assistance devices, to provide physical and cognitive assistance within rehabilitation and clinical scenarios. To understand such rehabilitation processes, several biomechanical studies have been conducted to assess human gait with passive and active walkers. Several sessions were conducted with 11 healthy volunteers to assess three interaction strategies based on passive, low and high mechanical stiffness values on the AGoRA Smart Walker. The trials were carried out in a motion analysis laboratory. Kinematic data were also collected from the smart walker sensory interface. The interaction force between users and the device was recorded. The force required under passive and low stiffness modes was $56.66\%$ and $67.48\%$ smaller than the high stiffness mode, respectively. An increase of $17.03\%$ for the hip range of motion, as well as the highest trunk’s inclination, were obtained under the resistive mode, suggesting a compensating motion to exert a higher impulse force on the device. Kinematic and physical interaction data suggested that the high stiffness mode significantly affected the users’ gait pattern. Results suggested that users compensated their kinematics, tilting their trunk and lower limbs to exert higher impulse forces on the device.

【 授权许可】

Unknown