Human-in-the-Loop Adaptive Control of an Ankle Exoskeleton for Gait Symmetry under Asymmetric Loading

Asymmetric weight-bearing frequently disrupts gait symmetry and increases muscular effort. This paper presents the development of a lightweight ankle exoskeleton and a human-in-the-loop (HIL) adaptive control strategy to mitigate these effects. The exoskeleton employs a modular design with remote ac...

Celý popis

Uložené v:
Podrobná bibliografia
Vydané v:IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics s. 1 - 6
Hlavní autori: Zhuang, Wenbing, Luo, Zining, Li, Xinying, Yu, Shiquan, Leng, Yuquan, Fu, Chenglong
Médium: Konferenčný príspevok..
Jazyk:English
Vydavateľské údaje: IEEE 14.07.2025
Predmet:
Adaptive control
Ankle
Asymmetric load
Exoskeleton
Exoskeletons
gait symmetry
Human in the loop
human-in-the-loop optimization
Limbs
Loading
Mechatronics
Muscles
Optimization
Real-time systems
ISSN:2159-6255
On-line prístup:Získať plný text
Tagy: Pridať tag
Žiadne tagy, Buďte prvý, kto otaguje tento záznam!
Popis
Shrnutí:Asymmetric weight-bearing frequently disrupts gait symmetry and increases muscular effort. This paper presents the development of a lightweight ankle exoskeleton and a human-in-the-loop (HIL) adaptive control strategy to mitigate these effects. The exoskeleton employs a modular design with remote actuation to minimize distal limb mass. The hierarchical control strategy estimates ankle joint moments in real-time using plantar pressure for proportional assistance, while a high-level Bayesian optimization algorithm iteratively adjusts bilateral assistance parameters to maximize a center of mass (CoM) velocity-based symmetry index (SI). Experiments with three healthy participants carrying a unilateral 15% body weight load demonstrated that the HIL optimization converged rapidly (average 2.8 min) to subject-specific, asymmetric assistance levels. Compared to unassisted loaded walking, the optimized assistance improved CoM velocity SI by 13.16%. Concurrently, bilateral plantar flexor muscle activation showed reductions of up to approximately 28%. These results highlight the potential of adaptive, personalized exoskeleton control to restore gait symmetry under asymmetric loading conditions.
ISSN:2159-6255
DOI:10.1109/AIM64088.2025.11175771