Ankle-Exoskeleton Control for Assisting in Balance Recovery After Unexpected Disturbances During Walking

C. Bayón*, W.F. Rampeltshammer, A.Q.L. Keemink, H. van der Kooij, E.H.F. van Asseldonk

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
1645 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In the last two decades, lower-limb exoskeletons have been developed to assist human standing and locomotion. One of the ongoing challenges is still balance support. Here we present a control strategy for an ankle-exoskeleton to assist balance recovery after unexpected disturbances during walking. We evaluated the controller in two healthy participants wearing the ankles of the Symbitron exoskeleton while receiving forward pushes at the pelvis during walking. Providing low and medium assistance resulted in improvement of balance recovery (decreased center of mass movement in the direction of the perturbation) and reduction of muscle activity, respect to trials with no assistance. These effects saturated with high levels of assistance. The results are promising, but the controller should be improved to use human’s real-time response as a feedback to trigger the support.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWearable Robotics: Challenges and Trends
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Wearable Robotics, WeRob2020, and of WearRAcon Europe 2020, October 13–16, 2020
EditorsJuan C. Moreno, Jawad Masood, Urs Schneider, Christophe Maufroy, Jose L. Pons
PublisherSpringer
Pages47-51
Number of pages5
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-69547-7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Event5th International Symposium on Wearable Robotics, WeRob 2020 - Virtual conference
Duration: 13 Oct 202016 Oct 2020
Conference number: 5
https://www.wearableroboticslab.nl/Events/2020/10/648432/balance-recovery-support-using-wearable-robotic-devices#speakers-talks

Publication series

NameBiosystems and Biorobotics
Volume27
ISSN (Print)2195-3562
ISSN (Electronic)2195-3570

Conference

Conference5th International Symposium on Wearable Robotics, WeRob 2020
Abbreviated titleWeRob 2020
Period13/10/2016/10/20
Internet address

Keywords

  • 2022 OA procedure

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