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Session: Poster session II
Session starts: Thursday 24 January, 16:00

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Guillaume Durandau (University of Twente)
Herman van der Kooij (University of Twente)
Massimo Sartori (University of Twente)

Abstract:
One of the main difficulties in using exoskeletons for the rehabilitation of paretic patients is that we do not understand the neuro-mechanical interplay between wearable robots connected in parallel with the human body. This results in suboptimal rehabilitation solutions for the patient. To better understand this interplay, we first created a real-time electromyography (EMG)-driven model framework. This allows the computation of the different muscles states as well as joints moment. We showed the possibility of the EMG-driven model to work in real-time and to extrapolate outside of its calibration data. Following this encouraging result, we integrated our framework within a lower limb (knee and ankle) exoskeleton and used the computed biological joint moments to drive it. This class of controllers allowed the exoskeleton to be driven by healthy as well as paretic patients in sited experiments. Results showed that this approach can be used to alter EMG patterns consistently as a function of the level of assistance and reduce the normalized variability of the muscles EMG. Subsequently, we investigated the possibility to drive this model using a wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) suit and compared it with conventional marker-based motion capture systems. This will enable us to conduct human-exoskeleton experiments outside of the laboratory. Our current work shows how by combining this IMU suit with a bilateral ankle exoskeleton, we can investigate the effect of the robot on the neuromusculoskeletal system during functional tasks like walking, stair and ramp. At the same time, we can use this knowledge to drive the exoskeleton to assist the user during these tasks. These different results demonstrated the possibility of these new developed tools to understand the neuro-mechanics of man-machine systems. This can be a game changer in bringing more efficient neurorehabilitation tool exploiting neuroplasticity.