Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T07:02:22.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The effects on biomechanics of walking and balance recovery in a novel pelvis exoskeleton during zero-torque control

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2014

Dario Martelli ,
Federica Vannetti ,
Mario Cortese ,
Peppino Tropea ,
Francesco Giovacchini ,
Silvestro Micera ,
Vito Monaco  and
Nicola Vitiello
Dario Martelli
Affiliation:
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pontedera, Italy
Federica Vannetti
Affiliation:
Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, Florence, Italy
Mario Cortese
Affiliation:
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pontedera, Italy
Peppino Tropea
Affiliation:
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pontedera, Italy
Francesco Giovacchini
Affiliation:
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pontedera, Italy
Silvestro Micera
Affiliation:
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pontedera, Italy Translational Neural Engineering Lab, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
Vito Monaco
Affiliation:
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pontedera, Italy
Nicola Vitiello*
Affiliation:
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pontedera, Italy Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, Florence, Italy
*
*Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Fall-related accidents are among the most serious concerns in elderly people, amputees and subjects with neurological disorders. The aim of this paper was to investigate the behaviour of healthy subjects wearing a novel light-weight pelvis exoskeleton controlled in zero-torque mode while carrying out unperturbed locomotion and managing unexpected perturbations. Results showed that the proposed exoskeleton was unobtrusive and had a minimum loading effect on the human biomechanics during unperturbed locomotion. Conversely, it affected the movement of the trailing leg while subjects managed unexpected slipping-like perturbations. These findings support further investigations on the potential use of powered exoskeletons to assist locomotion and, possibly prevent incipient falls.

Keywords

RehabilitationExoskeletonsMan-machine systemsPerturbationWalking
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 32 , Issue 8: Rehabilitation Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction , December 2014 , pp. 1317 - 1330
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Masud, T. and Morris, R. O., “Epidemiology of falls,” Age and Ageing 30 (4), 3–7 (2001).Google Scholar
2.Berg, W. P., Alessio, H. M., Mills, E. M. and Tong, C., “Circumstances and consequences of falls in independent community-dwelling older adults,” Age Ageing 26 (4), 261–268 (1997).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Miller, W. C., Speechley, M. and Deathe, B., “The prevalence and risk factors of falling and fear of falling among lower extremity amputees,” Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil. 82 (8), 1031–1037 (2001).Google Scholar
4.Stolze, H., Klebe, S., Zechlin, C., Baecker, C., Friege, L. and Deuschl, G., “Falls in frequent neurological diseases–prevalence, risk factors and aetiology,” J. Neurol. 251 (1), 79–84 (2004).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.van der Linden, M. H., Marigold, D. S., Gabreels, F. J. and Duysens, J., “Muscle reflexes and synergies triggered by an unexpected support surface height during walking,” J. Neurophysiol. 97 (5), 3639–3650 (2007).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Marigold, D. S. and Patla, A. E., “Adapting locomotion to different surface compliances: Neuromuscular responses and changes in movement dynamics,” J. Neurophysiol. 94 (3), 1733–1750 (2005).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7.Tang, P. F., Woollacott, M. H. and Chong, R. K., “Control of reactive balance adjustments in perturbed human walking: Roles of proximal and distal postural muscle activity,” Exp. Brain Res. 119 (2), 141–152 (1998).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8.Moyer, B. E., Redfern, M. S. and Cham, R., “Biomechanics of trailing leg response to slipping – Evidence of interlimb and intralimb coordination,” Gait Posture 29 (4), 565–570 (2009).Google Scholar
9.Marigold, D. S., Bethune, A. J. and Patla, A. E., “Role of the unperturbed limb and arms in the reactive recovery response to an unexpected slip during locomotion,” J. Neurophysiol. 89 (4), 1727–1737 (2003).Google Scholar
10.Martelli, D., Monaco, V., Luciani, L. Bassi and Micera, S., “Angular momentum during unexpected multidirectional perturbations delivered while walking,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 60 (7), 1785–1795 (2013).Google Scholar
11.Pijnappels, M., Bobbert, M. F. and van Dieen, J. H., “Contribution of the support limb in control of angular momentum after tripping,” J. Biomech. 37 (12), 1811–1818 (2004).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Eng, J. J., Winter, D. A. and Patla, A. E., “Strategies for recovery from a trip in early and late swing during human walking,” Exp. Brain Res. 102 (2), 339–349 (1994).Google Scholar
13.Mansfield, A., Peters, A. L., Liu, B. A. and Maki, B. E., “Effect of a perturbation-based balance training program on compensatory stepping and grasping reactions in older adults: A randomized controlled trial,” Phys. Ther. 90 (4), 476–491 (2010).Google Scholar
14.Parijat, P. and Lockhart, T. E., “Effects of moveable platform training in preventing slip-induced falls in older adults,” Ann. Biomed. Eng. 40 (5), 1111–1121 (2012).Google Scholar
15.Nyan, M. N., Tay, F. E. and Murugasu, E., “A wearable system for pre-impact fall detection,” J. Biomech. 41 (16), 3475–3481 (2008).Google Scholar
16.Wu, G. and Xue, S., “Portable preimpact fall detector with inertial sensors,” IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng. 16 (2), 178–183 (2008).Google Scholar
17.Bruijn, S. M., Meijer, O. G., Beek, P. J. and van Dieen, J. H., “Assessing the stability of human locomotion: A review of current measures,” Assessing the stability of human locomotion: A review of current measures 10 (83), 20120999 (2013).Google ScholarPubMed
18.Pons, J. L., “Rehabilitation exoskeletal robotics. The promise of an emerging field,” IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Mag. 29 (3), 57–63 (2010).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Veneman, J. F., Kruidhof, R., Hekman, E. E. G., Ekkelenkamp, R., Van Asseldonk, E. H. F. and van der Kooij, H., “Design and evaluation of the LOPES exoskeleton robot for interactive gait rehabilitation,” IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng. 15 (3), 379–386 (2007).Google Scholar
20.Dollar, A. M. and Herr, H., “Lower extremity exoskeletons and active orthoses: Challenges and state-of-the-art,” IEEE Trans. Robot. 24 (1), 144–158 (2008).Google Scholar
21.Farris, R. J., Quintero, H. A. and Goldfarb, M., “Performance Evaluation of a Lower Limb Exoskeleton for Stair Ascent and Descent with Paraplegia,” Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) San Diego, CA, USA (Aug. 28–Sep. 1, 2012) pp. 1908–1911.Google Scholar
22.Giovacchini, F., Fantozzi, M., Peroni, M., M. Moisé, Cempini, M., Cortese, M., Lefeber, D., Carrozza, M. C. and Vitiello, N., “A Light-weight Exoskeleton for Hip Flexion-extension Assistance,” Proceedings of the 1st International Congress on Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics Vilamoura, Portugal (Sep. 18–20, 2013) pp. 194–198.Google Scholar
23.Abe, D., Yanagawa, K. and Niihata, S., “Effects of load carriage, load position, and walking speed on energy cost of walking,” Appl. Ergon. 35 (4), 329–335 (2004).Google Scholar
24.Martin, P. E. and Nelson, R. C., “The effect of carried loads on the walking patterns of men and women,” Ergonomics 29 (10), 1191–1202 (1986).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25.Pratt, G. A. and Williamson, M. M., “Series Elastic Actuators Iros ‘95,” Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems: Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots Pittsburgh, PA, USA (Aug. 5–9, 1995) pp. 399–406.Google Scholar
26.Cempini, M., Giovacchini, F., Vitiello, N., Cortese, M., Moise, M., Posteraro, F. and Carrozza, M. C., “NEUROExos: A Powered Elbow Orthosis for Post-Stroke Early Neurorehabilitation,” Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Osaka, Japan (Jul. 3–7, 2013) pp. 342–345.Google Scholar
27.Giovacchini, F., Cempini, M., Vitiello, N. and Carrozza, M. C., Molla Torsionale Italian Patent Application, Application number: FI2013A000156, Application date: July 1, 2013.Google Scholar
28.Vitiello, N., Lenzi, T., Roccella, S., De Rossi, S. M. M., Cattin, E., Giovacchini, F., Vecchi, F. and Carrozza, M. C., “NEUROExos: A powered elbow exoskeleton for physical rehabilitation,” IEEE Trans. Robot. 29 (1), 220–235 (2013).Google Scholar
29.Zinn, M., Roth, B., Khatib, O. and Salisbury, J. K., “A new actuation approach for human friendly robot design,” A new actuation approach for human friendly robot design 23 (4–5), 379–398 (2004).Google Scholar
30.Vitiello, N., Lenzi, T., De Rossi, S. M. M., Roccella, S. and Carrozza, M. C., “A sensorless torque control for Antagonistic Driven Compliant Joints,” Mechatronics 20 (3), 355–367 (2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31.Luciani, L. Bassi, Genovese, V., Monaco, V., Odetti, L., Cattin, E. and Micera, S., “Design and evaluation of a new mechatronic platform for assessment and prevention of fall risks,” Design and evaluation of a new mechatronic platform for assessment and prevention of fall risks 9 (1), 51 (2012).Google Scholar
32.Davis, R. B., Ounpuu, S., Tyburski, D. and Gage, J. R., “A gait analysis data collection and reduction technique,” Hum. Mov. Sci. 10, 575–587 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Vitiello, N., Lenzi, T., De Rossi, S. M. M., Giovacchini, F., Cempini, M. and Carrozza, M. C., “Technological Aid for Transfemoral Amputees,” PCT patent application number: PCT/IB2013/055065, Application date: June 20, 2013, Publication date: December 27, 2013, WO 2013/190495.Google Scholar
34.Zhang, F., D'Andrea, S. E., Nunnery, M. J., Kay, S. M. and Huang, H., “Towards design of a stumble detection system for artificial legs,” IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng. 19 (5), 567–577 (2011).Google Scholar
35.Winter, D. A., Biomechanics and Motor Control of Human Gait: Normal, Elderly and Pathological (University of Waterloo Press, Waterloo, 1991).Google Scholar