Volition-adaptive control for gait training using wearable exoskeleton: preliminary tests with incomplete spinal cord injury individuals

This paper evaluates an adaptive control model, commanded by the user intention, using a lower limb exoskeleton with incomplete spinal cord injury individuals (SCI). The adaptive control model modifies the joint impedance properties of the exoskeleton as a function of the human-orthosis interaction torques and the joint trajectory evolution along the gait sequence, in real time. The volitional input of the user is identified by monitoring the neural signals, pertaining to the user’s motor activity.

• 1
  The exoskeleton demonstrated an adaptive assistance depending on the patients’ performance without guiding them to follow an imposed trajectory.
• 2
  The exoskeleton initiated the trajectory based on the user intention command received from the brain machine interface, demonstrating it as a reliable trigger.
• 3
  A progressive change in the maximum flexion of the knee joint was observed at the end of each session which shows improvement in the patient performance.