Title: Auditory movement feedforward for a lower-limb exoskeleton device (AIDER) to increase transparency

Authors: Jing Qiu; Yilin Wang; Hong Cheng; Lu Wang; Xiao Yang

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2006 Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China ' School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2006 Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China ' School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2006 Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China ' School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2006 Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China ' Department of Orthopedics, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, 32 West Second Section, First Ring Road, Chengdu, 610072, Sichuan, China

Abstract: A lower-limb exoskeleton (LLE) is a device intended to assist patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) with standing and walking in daily life. Due to the lack of proprioception in lower limbs, SCI patients wearing an LLE need the gait information feedforward from the human-exoskeleton system for walking safety. It is necessary, therefore, to explore how to improve the transparency of LLE systems to help the wearer get gait information from LLE. This study conducted several auditory prompt experiments to determine the most adaptive movement feedforward method to improve transparency for an exoskeleton called AIDER. The results indicated that auditory movement feedforward could remind wearers of the next motion state. Moreover, the subjects felt more secure with auditory movement feedforward than with no feedforward when wearing AIDER.

Keywords: lower-limb exoskeleton; spinal cord injury; transparency; movement feedforward; auditory prompt; AIDER.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFMS.2022.124303

International Journal of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation, 2022 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.247 - 261

Received: 28 Jun 2021
Accepted: 20 Dec 2021
Published online: 21 Jul 2022 *