Human Walk Modeled by PCPG to Control a Lower Limb
Neuroprosthesis by High-Level Commands
Matthieu Duvinage, Thierry Castermans, Rene Jimenez-Fabian, Thomas Hoellinger, Mathieu Petieau, Olivier Verlinden, Guy Cheron, Thierry Dutoit
Current active leg prostheses do not integrate the most recent
advances in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) and bipedal
robotics. Moreover, their actuators are seldom driven by the
subject’s intention.
This paper aims at showing a summary of our current results in
the field of human gait rehabilitation. In a first prototype, the
main focus was on people suffering from foot drop problems,
i.e. people who are unable to lift their feet. However, current
work is focusing on a full active ankle orthosis.
The approach is threefold: a BCI system, a gait model and
an orthosis. Thanks to the BCI system, patients are able to
generate high-level commands. Typically, a command could
represent a speed modification. Then, a gait model based on
a programmable central pattern generator is used to generate
the adequate kinematics. Finally, the orthosis is tracking this
kinematics when the foot is in the air, whereas, the orthosis is
mimicking a spring when the foot is on the ground. Full Text
|
