Instructional Leadership, emphasis: K-12 School Leadership (MEd)
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  6. Proportional Joint-Moment Control for Powered Exoskeletons

Proportional Joint-Moment Control for Powered Exoskeletons

Description

The wearable robotic assistive device is a powered exoskeleton and powered prostheses that adapts assistance across locomotor tasks encountered during daily life, remaining realistic for users to implement themselves at home. The device control strategy (Proportional Joint-Moment Control) is based on the concept of providing assistance that is proportional to the instantaneous demand placed on a joint (e.g., ankle), a torque balance about the joint. A force/pressure sensor, located between the foot and ground, is used to approximate the ground reaction force applied to a proximal segment along with the inferred or calculated center of pressure. The ankle exoskeleton was designed to minimize the metabolic burden of adding mass to the lower extremity by placing the motors and battery at the waist.

Additional information

Patent number and inventor

16/403,121

Zachary F. Lerner

Potential applications

Clinical applications for gait rehabilitation through robotics.

Benefits and advantages

The primary goal of wearable assistance is to improve walking efficiency. The technology was designed for an adaptive exoskeleton control strategy that is suitable for maximum usability across a wide range of user ages, cognitive abilities, and fine motor skills. The primary benefit of the wearable exoskeleton is to improve free-living mobility for ambulatory individuals with neuromotor impairment, such as stroke, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson’s. The exoskeleton responds to intended actions. An advantage of proportional control strategies is that they do not require additional classifier training for unique and asymmetric pathological gait patterns.

Case number and licensing status

2019-014

This invention is available for licensing.