Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements
Background : Soft wearable robots (exosuits), being lightweight, ergonomic and low power-demanding, are attractive for a variety of applications, ranging from strength augmentation in industrial scenarios, to medical assistance for people with motor impairments. Understanding how these devices affec...
Saved in:
Main Authors: | , , , |
---|---|
Other Authors: | |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2019
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/105970 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48825 |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
Language: | English |
id |
sg-ntu-dr.10356-105970 |
---|---|
record_format |
dspace |
spelling |
sg-ntu-dr.10356-1059702023-03-04T17:17:29Z Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements Xiloyannis, Michele Chiaradia, Domenico Frisoli, Antonio Masia, Lorenzo School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate School (IGS) Robotics Research Centre Soft Exosuit Assistive Wearable Robot DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering Background : Soft wearable robots (exosuits), being lightweight, ergonomic and low power-demanding, are attractive for a variety of applications, ranging from strength augmentation in industrial scenarios, to medical assistance for people with motor impairments. Understanding how these devices affect the physiology and mechanics of human movements is fundamental for quantifying their benefits and drawbacks, assessing their suitability for different applications and guiding a continuous design refinement. Methods : We present a novel wearable exosuit for assistance/augmentation of the elbow and introduce a controller that compensates for gravitational forces acting on the limb while allowing the suit to cooperatively move with its wearer. Eight healthy subjects wore the exosuit and performed elbow movements in two conditions: with assistance from the device (powered) and without assistance (unpowered). The test included a dynamic task, to evaluate the impact of the assistance on the kinematics and dynamics of human movement, and an isometric task, to assess its influence on the onset of muscular fatigue. Results : Powered movements showed a low but significant degradation in accuracy and smoothness when compared to the unpowered ones. The degradation in kinematics was accompanied by an average reduction of59.20±5.58% (mean±standard error) of the biological torque and 64.8±7.66% drop in muscular effort when the exosuit assisted its wearer. Furthermore, an analysis of the electromyographic signals of the biceps brachii during the isometric task revealed that the exosuit delays the onset of muscular fatigue. Conclusions : The study examined the effects of an exosuit on the characteristics of human movements. The suit supports most of the power needed to move and reduces the effort that the subject needs to exert to counteract gravity in a static posture, delaying the onset of muscular fatigue. We interpret the decline in kinematic performance as a technical limitation of the current device. This work suggests that a powered exosuit can be a good candidate for industrial and clinical applications, where task efficiency and hardware transparency are paramount. Published version 2019-06-19T03:54:26Z 2019-12-06T22:01:53Z 2019-06-19T03:54:26Z 2019-12-06T22:01:53Z 2019 Journal Article Xiloyannis, M., Chiaradia, D., Frisoli, A., & Masia, L. (2019). Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 16, 29-. doi:10.1186/s12984-019-0495-y https://hdl.handle.net/10356/105970 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48825 10.1186/s12984-019-0495-y en Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation © 2019 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. 15 p. application/pdf |
institution |
Nanyang Technological University |
building |
NTU Library |
continent |
Asia |
country |
Singapore Singapore |
content_provider |
NTU Library |
collection |
DR-NTU |
language |
English |
topic |
Soft Exosuit Assistive Wearable Robot DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering |
spellingShingle |
Soft Exosuit Assistive Wearable Robot DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering Xiloyannis, Michele Chiaradia, Domenico Frisoli, Antonio Masia, Lorenzo Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements |
description |
Background : Soft wearable robots (exosuits), being lightweight, ergonomic and low power-demanding, are attractive for a variety of applications, ranging from strength augmentation in industrial scenarios, to medical assistance for people with motor impairments. Understanding how these devices affect the physiology and mechanics of human movements is fundamental for quantifying their benefits and drawbacks, assessing their suitability for different applications and guiding a continuous design refinement. Methods : We present a novel wearable exosuit for assistance/augmentation of the elbow and introduce a controller that compensates for gravitational forces acting on the limb while allowing the suit to cooperatively move with its wearer. Eight healthy subjects wore the exosuit and performed elbow movements in two conditions: with assistance from the device (powered) and without assistance (unpowered). The test included a dynamic task, to evaluate the impact of the assistance on the kinematics and dynamics of human movement, and an isometric task, to assess its influence on the onset of muscular fatigue. Results : Powered movements showed a low but significant degradation in accuracy and smoothness when compared to the unpowered ones. The degradation in kinematics was accompanied by an average reduction of59.20±5.58% (mean±standard error) of the biological torque and 64.8±7.66% drop in muscular effort when the exosuit assisted its wearer. Furthermore, an analysis of the electromyographic signals of the biceps brachii during the isometric task revealed that the exosuit delays the onset of muscular fatigue. Conclusions : The study examined the effects of an exosuit on the characteristics of human movements. The suit supports most of the power needed to move and reduces the effort that the subject needs to exert to counteract gravity in a static posture, delaying the onset of muscular fatigue. We interpret the decline in kinematic performance as a technical limitation of the current device. This work suggests that a powered exosuit can be a good candidate for industrial and clinical applications, where task efficiency and hardware transparency are paramount. |
author2 |
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering |
author_facet |
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Xiloyannis, Michele Chiaradia, Domenico Frisoli, Antonio Masia, Lorenzo |
format |
Article |
author |
Xiloyannis, Michele Chiaradia, Domenico Frisoli, Antonio Masia, Lorenzo |
author_sort |
Xiloyannis, Michele |
title |
Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements |
title_short |
Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements |
title_full |
Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements |
title_fullStr |
Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements |
title_full_unstemmed |
Physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements |
title_sort |
physiological and kinematic effects of a soft exosuit on arm movements |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10356/105970 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48825 |
_version_ |
1759854810935328768 |