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Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users

Lower-limb exoskeletons have been created for different healthcare needs, but no research has been done on developing a proper protocol for users to get accustomed to moving with one. The user manuals provided also do not include such instructions. A pre-test was conducted with the TWIN (IIT), which...

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Autores principales: Lau, Jan C. L., Mombaur, Katja
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8786600/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35087873
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.785251
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author Lau, Jan C. L.
Mombaur, Katja
author_facet Lau, Jan C. L.
Mombaur, Katja
author_sort Lau, Jan C. L.
collection PubMed
description Lower-limb exoskeletons have been created for different healthcare needs, but no research has been done on developing a proper protocol for users to get accustomed to moving with one. The user manuals provided also do not include such instructions. A pre-test was conducted with the TWIN (IIT), which is a lower-limb exoskeleton made for persons with spinal cord injury. In the pre-test, two healthy, able-bodied graduate students indicated a need for a protocol that can better prepare able-bodied, first-time users to move with an exoskeleton. TWIN was used in this preliminary study and nine users were divided to receive a tutorial or no tutorial before walking with the exoskeleton. Due to COVID-19 regulations, the study could only be performed with healthy, young-to-middle-aged lab members that do not require walking support. The proposed protocol was evaluated with the System Usability Scale, NASA Raw Task Load Index, and two custom surveys. The members who received the tutorial found it easy to follow and helpful, but the tutorial seemed to come at a price of higher perceived mental and physical demands, which could stem from the longer testing duration and the need to constantly recall and apply the things learned from the tutorial. All results presented are preliminary, and it is recommended to include biomechanical analysis and conduct the experiment with more participants in the future. Nonetheless, this proof-of-concept study lays groundwork for future related studies and the protocol will be adjusted, applied, and validated to patients and geriatric users.
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spelling pubmed-87866002022-01-26 Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users Lau, Jan C. L. Mombaur, Katja Front Robot AI Robotics and AI Lower-limb exoskeletons have been created for different healthcare needs, but no research has been done on developing a proper protocol for users to get accustomed to moving with one. The user manuals provided also do not include such instructions. A pre-test was conducted with the TWIN (IIT), which is a lower-limb exoskeleton made for persons with spinal cord injury. In the pre-test, two healthy, able-bodied graduate students indicated a need for a protocol that can better prepare able-bodied, first-time users to move with an exoskeleton. TWIN was used in this preliminary study and nine users were divided to receive a tutorial or no tutorial before walking with the exoskeleton. Due to COVID-19 regulations, the study could only be performed with healthy, young-to-middle-aged lab members that do not require walking support. The proposed protocol was evaluated with the System Usability Scale, NASA Raw Task Load Index, and two custom surveys. The members who received the tutorial found it easy to follow and helpful, but the tutorial seemed to come at a price of higher perceived mental and physical demands, which could stem from the longer testing duration and the need to constantly recall and apply the things learned from the tutorial. All results presented are preliminary, and it is recommended to include biomechanical analysis and conduct the experiment with more participants in the future. Nonetheless, this proof-of-concept study lays groundwork for future related studies and the protocol will be adjusted, applied, and validated to patients and geriatric users. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-01-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8786600/ /pubmed/35087873 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.785251 Text en Copyright © 2022 Lau and Mombaur. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Robotics and AI
Lau, Jan C. L.
Mombaur, Katja
Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users
title Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users
title_full Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users
title_fullStr Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users
title_full_unstemmed Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users
title_short Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users
title_sort preliminary study on a novel protocol for improving familiarity with a lower-limb robotic exoskeleton in able-bodied, first-time users
topic Robotics and AI
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8786600/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35087873
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.785251
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