Muscle activation patterns during plantarflexion-assisted walking
| Project/Area Number |
21K17791
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 61020:Human interface and interaction-related
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| Research Institution | Saga University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2022)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,420,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,020,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000)
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| Keywords | ergonomics / gait analysis / motion analysis / electromyography |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
Although physically assistive devices such as lower-limb exoskeletons are able to provide the forces required to walk, the user does not necessarily reduce their muscular activity to benefit from the assistive force provided and may adjust their gait in ways that are counterproductive.
This research aims to shed light on the biomechanical and physiological factors that can cause a user to work against its exoskeleton when walking, such as the need to maintain balance while walking, the correlated activation of muscles (muscle synergies), and the perturbation caused by an external force.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
As technology advances and world population ages, lower‐limb exoskeletons are expected to become more widespread. However, there are still substantial barriers in reducing the metabolic cost required for walking using these exoskeletons. Because walking is largely an unconscious and automated activity, users of exoskeletons often do not reduce their muscular activity to benefit from the assistive force provided and adjust their gait in ways that are counterproductive. This research aims to improve our understanding of these barriers to reduce the metabolic costs of walking through controlled experiments with healthy human subjects. It is important to understand the adaptations to these external forces to design exoskeletons that can effectively complement and cooperate with its user human user.
In the first and second year, a custom ankle exoskeleton testbed that can provide precise plantarflexion assistance in order to perform the experiments stated above was developed. The ankle exoskeleton testbed needs to have the function to control the torque exerted based on the angle of the ankle as well as other inputs. By synchronising the actuators with a motion capture system and sensors in the exoskeleton, the developed exoskeleton is able to provide precisely timed assistance to the participants depending on their gait phase. Additionally, a review on human adaptations to external assistive forces in exoskeletons was conducted.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Due to the delays in the first year caused by COVID‐19, the development of the exoskeleton testbed could only be completed in the second year.
In an attempt to make up for the delays, a review on human adaptations to external assistive forces and performed and published. Additionally, a related study where the force provided from a walker are used to enhance the interaction and cooperation between human and machine, which will be used to inform the study designs, hypotheses, and experiment protocols of future studies, was performed and published.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The current plan is to use the ankle exoskeleton developed to perform the planned experiment in the last year. To make up for lost time, the experiments is planned to be performed back-to-back to minimise the time requied to setup the experiment. The focus remains to improve our understanding of the factors preventing a user from reducing their muscular activity
when assistive forces are provided during walking. By varying the walking task/instruction as well as the parameters of assistance provided, I
hope to gain insights into ways to improve the effectiveness of exoskeletons.
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Report
(2 results)
Research Products
(3 results)
