Finger-mounted walk controller of powered exoskeleton for paraplegic patient's walk

Abstract

This paper proposes a finger-mounted user interface device and a cooperative control algorithm for complete paraplegic patient to walk with a powered exoskeleton. Current walk support systems actually help the patient walking. However, they have a limitation to adjust its walk as a patient intends, such as stride, foot height, and so on. In our research, an index finger is focused on as a residual function of a paraplegic patient for the gait control. A pair of finger interface devices is developed for a patient to convey his/her intention to the walk support system through it. As the first step, a walking robot was developed to simulate the patient body and the walk assistive system. A 10-meter walking experiment was conducted to evaluate feasibility of the interface device and a control algorithm to start leg swing. We confirmed that the timing of the leg swing was adjusted as the user intended through the interface and that the 10-meter walk was finished in three minutes.