title: A Method for the Autonomous Control of Lower Limb Exo-skeletons for Persons with Paraplegia.
abstract: Efforts have recently been reported by several research groups on the development of computer-controlled lower limb orthoses to enable legged locomotion in persons with paraplegia. Such systems must employ a control framework that provides essential movements to the paraplegic user (i.e., sitting, standing, and walking), and ideally enable the user to autonomously command these various movements in a safe, reliable, and intuitive manner. This paper describes a control method that enables a paraplegic user to perform sitting, standing, and walking movements, which are commanded based on postural information measured by the device. The proposed user interface and control structure was implemented on a powered lower limb orthosis, and the system was tested on a paraplegic subject with a T10 complete injury. Experimental data is presented that indicates the ability of the proposed control architecture to provide appropriate user-initiated control of sitting, standing, and walking. The authors also provide a link to a video that qualitatively demonstrates the user's ability to independently control basic movements via the proposed control method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235.
authors.forename: Hugo A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Quintero
authors.forename: Ryan J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Farris
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goldfarb