Complementary limb motion estimation based on interjoint coordination: Experimental evaluation

For motor rehabilitation of hemiplegic patients by means of motorized orthoses, as well as in intelligent prosthetics, a major challenge is the coordination of healthy and robotically assisted limbs. The new method of Complementary Limb Motion Estimation (CLME) analyzes dependencies among human Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) in healthy subjects. Based on this knowledge, adequate motion for inoperable DoFs in patients is estimated on-line from sound limb motion. Thus, the intention of a partially paralyzed person or an amputee can be deduced from residual body motion, in order to coordinately actuate or supervise the impaired limbs. The aim is to increase the dominance of the patient and to reduce the robot to an assistive device. In continuity of priorly published evaluation by comuter simulations, this paper presents a first experimental proof of concept of CLME with healthy subjects. The results of these preliminary tests affirm the suitability of the algorithm for cooperative human-robot interaction.