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Human-in-the-Loop Control for AGoRA Unilateral Lower-Limb Exoskeleton

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Abstract

Exoskeletons aim to provide required torques in a patient’s lower limbs generating anatomical patterns. In this sense, this work presents an AGoRA lower limb exoskeleton aimed at rehabilitating patients who suffer hemiparesis. Two control strategies for physical Human-Robot Interaction are tested in a pilot study with a healthy user. On the one hand, the assistance mode uses a gait phase detection to generate a desired gait cycle in the paretic limb. On the other hand, the transparency mode is presented to simulate a back-drivable device using a mass-damper system. As a result, in the assistance mode, torques in the range of (20 - 30 Nm) for the knee and hip joints were generated to complete the user’s gait cycle. Moreover, the user can execute unrestricted movements using the AGoRA exoskeleton in the transparency mode.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia Tecnología e Innovación - Colombia (MinCiencias Grant ID No. 801-2017 and MinCiencias Grant ID No. 845-2020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Engineering Department, Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, Ak. 45 # 205 - 59, Bogotá, DC, Colombia

    Luis J. Arciniegas Mayag, Marcela Múnera & Carlos A. Cifuentes

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  1. Luis J. Arciniegas Mayag
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  2. Marcela Múnera
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  3. Carlos A. Cifuentes
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Contributions

All authors (Luis J. Arciniegas, Marcela Munera and Carlos A. Cifuentes) contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Luis J. Arciniegas and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Carlos A. Cifuentes.

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The Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito ethics committee approved the protocol.

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The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article. The authors have no relevant non-financial interests to disclose.

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Mayag, L.J.A., Múnera, M. & Cifuentes, C.A. Human-in-the-Loop Control for AGoRA Unilateral Lower-Limb Exoskeleton. J Intell Robot Syst 104, 3 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-021-01487-y

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