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Kinematic Analysis of Exoskeleton-Assisted Community Ambulation: An Observational Study in Outdoor Real-Life Scenarios

(1) Background: In neurorehabilitation, Wearable Powered Exoskeletons (WPEs) enable intensive gait training even in individuals who are unable to maintain an upright position. The importance of WPEs is not only related to their impact on walking recovery, but also to the possibility of using them as...

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Autores principales: Goffredo, Michela, Romano, Paola, Infarinato, Francesco, Cioeta, Matteo, Franceschini, Marco, Galafate, Daniele, Iacopini, Rebecca, Pournajaf, Sanaz, Ottaviani, Marco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9228687/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35746315
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22124533
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author Goffredo, Michela
Romano, Paola
Infarinato, Francesco
Cioeta, Matteo
Franceschini, Marco
Galafate, Daniele
Iacopini, Rebecca
Pournajaf, Sanaz
Ottaviani, Marco
author_facet Goffredo, Michela
Romano, Paola
Infarinato, Francesco
Cioeta, Matteo
Franceschini, Marco
Galafate, Daniele
Iacopini, Rebecca
Pournajaf, Sanaz
Ottaviani, Marco
author_sort Goffredo, Michela
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: In neurorehabilitation, Wearable Powered Exoskeletons (WPEs) enable intensive gait training even in individuals who are unable to maintain an upright position. The importance of WPEs is not only related to their impact on walking recovery, but also to the possibility of using them as assistive technology; however, WPE-assisted community ambulation has rarely been studied in terms of walking performance in real-life scenarios. (2) Methods: This study proposes the integration of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) system to analyze gait kinematics during real-life outdoor scenarios (regular, irregular terrains, and slopes) by comparing the ecological gait (no-WPE condition) and WPE-assisted gait in five able-bodied volunteers. The temporal parameters of gait and joint angles were calculated from data collected by a network of seven IMUs. (3) Results: The results showed that the WPE-assisted gait had less knee flexion in the stance phase and greater hip flexion in the swing phase. The different scenarios did not change the human–exoskeleton interaction: only the low-speed WPE-assisted gait was characterized by a longer double support phase. (4) Conclusions: The proposed IMU-based gait assessment protocol enabled quantification of the human–exoskeleton interaction in terms of gait kinematics and paved the way for the study of WPE-assisted community ambulation in stroke patients.
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spelling pubmed-92286872022-06-25 Kinematic Analysis of Exoskeleton-Assisted Community Ambulation: An Observational Study in Outdoor Real-Life Scenarios Goffredo, Michela Romano, Paola Infarinato, Francesco Cioeta, Matteo Franceschini, Marco Galafate, Daniele Iacopini, Rebecca Pournajaf, Sanaz Ottaviani, Marco Sensors (Basel) Article (1) Background: In neurorehabilitation, Wearable Powered Exoskeletons (WPEs) enable intensive gait training even in individuals who are unable to maintain an upright position. The importance of WPEs is not only related to their impact on walking recovery, but also to the possibility of using them as assistive technology; however, WPE-assisted community ambulation has rarely been studied in terms of walking performance in real-life scenarios. (2) Methods: This study proposes the integration of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) system to analyze gait kinematics during real-life outdoor scenarios (regular, irregular terrains, and slopes) by comparing the ecological gait (no-WPE condition) and WPE-assisted gait in five able-bodied volunteers. The temporal parameters of gait and joint angles were calculated from data collected by a network of seven IMUs. (3) Results: The results showed that the WPE-assisted gait had less knee flexion in the stance phase and greater hip flexion in the swing phase. The different scenarios did not change the human–exoskeleton interaction: only the low-speed WPE-assisted gait was characterized by a longer double support phase. (4) Conclusions: The proposed IMU-based gait assessment protocol enabled quantification of the human–exoskeleton interaction in terms of gait kinematics and paved the way for the study of WPE-assisted community ambulation in stroke patients. MDPI 2022-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9228687/ /pubmed/35746315 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22124533 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Goffredo, Michela
Romano, Paola
Infarinato, Francesco
Cioeta, Matteo
Franceschini, Marco
Galafate, Daniele
Iacopini, Rebecca
Pournajaf, Sanaz
Ottaviani, Marco
Kinematic Analysis of Exoskeleton-Assisted Community Ambulation: An Observational Study in Outdoor Real-Life Scenarios
title Kinematic Analysis of Exoskeleton-Assisted Community Ambulation: An Observational Study in Outdoor Real-Life Scenarios
title_full Kinematic Analysis of Exoskeleton-Assisted Community Ambulation: An Observational Study in Outdoor Real-Life Scenarios
title_fullStr Kinematic Analysis of Exoskeleton-Assisted Community Ambulation: An Observational Study in Outdoor Real-Life Scenarios
title_full_unstemmed Kinematic Analysis of Exoskeleton-Assisted Community Ambulation: An Observational Study in Outdoor Real-Life Scenarios
title_short Kinematic Analysis of Exoskeleton-Assisted Community Ambulation: An Observational Study in Outdoor Real-Life Scenarios
title_sort kinematic analysis of exoskeleton-assisted community ambulation: an observational study in outdoor real-life scenarios
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9228687/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35746315
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22124533
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