Body
This study is complete and is no longer recruiting subjects.
The number of Americans who require wheelchairs has been increasing every year. While wheelchairs provide some degree of freedom and reduce dependence upon others, wheelchair use is not physically or emotionally equivalent to walking and is often thought to limit community participation and exacerbate social isolation. Robotic exoskeletons have the potential to enable these individuals to stand up and walk, offering a way to more fully reintegrate these individuals into society.
However research on exoskeletons is still in its infancy and these devices are not capable of replacing the wheelchair for everyday use. This proposal seeks to address one of the existing hurdles preventing reliable use of exoskeletons in the home and community, namely the ability of the system to sense and adapt itself in anticipation of uneven terrain.
In collaboration with Innovative Design Labs, the goal of this study was to develop a 3D Imaging and Classification System for exoskeletons. The proposed classification system provides the control system of the exoskeleton with the required information to continuously determine features of the environment ahead such as terrain inclination angle and potential hazards thereby allowing the exoskeleton the ability to adjust its kinematics properties accordingly or notify the user that further forward movement is unsafe or unachievable.
Funding Source:
Patient Population:
- Exoskeleton users