A User Interface System with See-Through Display for WalkON Suit: A Powered Exoskeleton for Complete Paraplegics
Source abstract
Abstract
In the development of powered exoskeletons for paraplegics due to complete spinal cord injury, a convenient and reliable user-interface (UI) is one of the mandatory requirements. In most of such robots, a user (i.e., the complete paraplegic wearing a powered exoskeleton) may not be able to avoid using crutches for safety reasons. As both the sensory and motor functions of the paralyzed legs are impaired, the users should frequently check the feet positions to ensure the proper ground contact. Therefore, the UI of powered exoskeletons should be designed such that it is easy to be controlled while using crutches and to monitor the operation state without any obstruction of sight. In this paper, a UI system of the WalkON Suit, a powered exoskeleton for complete paraplegics, is introduced. The proposed UI system consists of see-through display (STD) glasses and a display and tact switches installed on a crutch for the user to control motion modes and the walking speed. Moreover, the user can monitor the operation state using the STD glasses, which enables the head to be positioned up. The proposed UI system is verified by experimental results in this paper. The proposed UI system was applied to the WalkON Suit for the torch relay of the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympics.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Prosthetics and Rehabilitation Robotics · Gaze Tracking and Assistive Technology · Spinal Cord Injury Research
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Angel Robotics Co. Ltd., 3 Seogangdae-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04111, Korea
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04107, Korea
References (39)
Show source-provided references
1. Robotic assisted gait as a tool for rehabilitation of individuals with spinal cord injury: A systematic review10.1186/s12984-017-0338-7 ↗
2. Mechatronic wearable exoskeletons for bionic bipedal standing and walking: A new synthetic approach10.3389/fnins.2016.00343 ↗
3. The technical trend of the exoskeleton robot system for human power assistance10.1007/s12541-012-0197-x ↗
4. Powered exoskeletons for bipedal locomotion after spinal cord injury10.1088/1741-2560/13/3/031001 ↗
5. Gait speed using powered robotic exoskeletons after spinal cord injury: A systematic review and correlational study10.1186/s12984-015-0074-9 ↗
6. The ReWalk powered exoskeleton to restore ambulatory function to individuals with thoracic-level motor-complete spinal cord injury10.1097/PHM.0b013e318269d9a3 ↗
7. Safety and feasibility of using the EksoTM bionic exoskeleton to aid ambulation after spinal cord injury
8. A powered lower limb orthosis for providing legged mobility in paraplegic individuals10.1310/sci1701-25 ↗
9. Kilicarslan, A., Prasad, S., Grossman, R.G., and Contreras-Vidal, J.L. (2013, January 3–7). High accuracy decoding of user intentions using EEG to control a lower-body exoskeleton. Proceedings of the 2013 35th Annual International Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Osaka, Japan.10.1109/EMBC.2013.6610821 ↗
10. Brain–machine interfaces for controlling lower-limb powered robotic systems10.1088/1741-2552/aaa8c0 ↗
11. EEG-Based BCI Control Schemes for Lower-Limb Assistive-Robots10.3389/fnhum.2018.00312 ↗
12. Wearable gait measurement system with an instrumented cane for exoskeleton control10.3390/s140101705 ↗
13. An ambulatory system for gait monitoring based on wireless sensorized insoles10.3390/s150716589 ↗
14. Intention-based EMG control for powered exoskeletons10.1109/TBME.2012.2198821 ↗
15. EMG and EPP-integrated human–machine interface between the paralyzed and rehabilitation exoskeleton10.1109/TITB.2011.2178034 ↗
16. Aguilar-Sierra, H., Yu, W., Salazar, S., and Lopez, R. (2015). Design and control of hybrid actuation lower limb exoskeleton. Adv. Mech. Eng., 7.10.1177/1687814015590988 ↗
17. HAL® exoskeleton training improves walking parameters and normalizes cortical excitability in primary somatosensory cortex in spinal cord injury patients10.1186/s12984-015-0058-9 ↗
18. Improvement of walking ability using hybrid assistive limb training in a patient with severe thoracic myelopathy caused by ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament. A case report
19. The Hybrid Assistive Limb® intervention for a postoperative patient with spinal dural arteriovenous fistula and chronic spinal cord injury: A case study10.1080/10790268.2017.1329916 ↗
20. EXiO—A brain-controlled lower limb exoskeleton for rhesus macaques10.1109/TNSRE.2017.2659654 ↗
21. Extracting kinematic parameters for monkey bipedal walking from cortical neuronal ensemble activity10.3389/neuro.07.003.2009 ↗
22. Intra-day signal instabilities affect decoding performance in an intracortical neural interface system10.1088/1741-2560/10/3/036004 ↗
23. A closed-loop brain-computer interface triggering an active ankle-foot orthosis for inducing cortical neural plasticity10.1109/TBME.2014.2313867 ↗
24. Brain-computer interface controlled robotic gait orthosis10.1186/1743-0003-10-111 ↗
25. Brain-controlled wheelchairs: A robotic architecture10.1109/MRA.2012.2229936 ↗
26. Long-term training with a brain-machine interface-based gait protocol induces partial neurological recovery in paraplegic patients10.1038/srep30383 ↗
27. Development of a surgical navigation system based on augmented reality using an optical see-through head-mounted display10.1016/j.jbi.2015.04.003 ↗
28. Google Glass in pediatric surgery: An exploratory study10.1016/j.ijsu.2014.02.003 ↗
29. WalkON Suit: A Medalist in the Powered Exoskeleton Race of Cybathlon 201610.1109/MRA.2017.2752285 ↗
30. Force maximization of biarticularly actuated manipulators using infinity norm10.1109/TMECH.2012.2193670 ↗
31. Control of a robotic manipulator in the polar coordinate system using a biarticular actuation mechanism10.1007/s12555-014-0343-6 ↗
32. The effects of gait training using powered lower limb exoskeleton robot on individuals with complete spinal cord injury10.1186/s12984-018-0355-1 ↗
33. Comparison of head-up display (HUD) vs. head-down display (HDD): Driving performance of commercial vehicle operators in Taiwan10.1016/j.ijhcs.2004.06.002 ↗
34. Tonnis, M., Lange, C., and Klinker, G. (2007, January 13–16). Visual longitudinal and lateral driving assistance in the head-up display of cars. Proceedings of the 6th IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, Nara, Japan.10.1109/ISMAR.2007.4538831 ↗
35. Gancet, J., Ilzkovitz, M., Motard, E., Nevatia, Y., Letier, P., de Weerdt, D., Cheron, G., Hoellinger, T., Seetharaman, K., and Petieau, M. (2012, January 24–27). MINDWALKER: Going one step further with assistive lower limbs exoskeleton for SCI condition subjects. Proceedings of the 2012 4th IEEE RAS & EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), Rome, Italy.10.1109/BioRob.2012.6290688 ↗
36. Noda, T., Sugimoto, N., Furukawa, J., Sato, M.A., Hyon, S.H., and Morimoto, J. (December, January 29). Brain-controlled exoskeleton robot for BMI rehabilitation. Proceedings of the 2012 12th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), Osaka, Japan.10.1109/HUMANOIDS.2012.6651494 ↗
37. A lower limb exoskeleton control system based on steady state visual evoked potentials10.1088/1741-2560/12/5/056009 ↗
38. Lee, K., Liu, D., Perroud, L., Chavarriaga, R., and Millán, J.D.R. (2017). Endogenous control of powered lower-limb exoskeleton. Wearable Robotics: Challenges and Trends, Springer.10.1007/978-3-319-46532-6_19 ↗
39. Veneman, J.F. (2014). Exoskeletons supporting postural balance—The BALANCE project. Replace, Repair, Restore, Relieve–Bridging Clinical and Engineering Solutions in Neurorehabilitation, Springer.10.1007/978-3-319-08072-7_38 ↗