PFI:BIC - ASPIRE: hierArchical control of a Smart ankle-foot Prosthesis that supports Increased mobility for REal-life activities

运动是人类最重要的功能之一，为生存、进步和互动服务。有200万美国人生活在截肢中，其中大多数是下肢截肢。尽管目前的动力假肢可以适应行走，并且在某些情况下可以跑步，但在各种非刚性或动态地形上行走等基本功能是尚未满足的要求。该项目的目标是开发和测试一种智能动力踝足假肢，以支持增加现实生活中活动的灵活性。这种智能服务系统将能够识别和适应动态的步行环境。基于机载传感和截肢者剩余肌肉的激活，它将调整其特性，以允许在不同的环境（例如混凝土，沥青，草地，砾石，松散的沙子）中行走，为截肢者提供稳健的行走和平衡。从该项目中获得的科学和技术知识的好处可以超越假肢，扩展到在援助和康复情况下与人类互动的机器。该合作伙伴关系的多学科专业知识，包括工程设计，控制和人为因素工程，提供了一个独特的环境，为参与学生的培训，并培养下一代研究人员的创新文化。最先进的下肢假肢为在恒定地形上行走提供了合理的解决方案;然而，研究表明，在可变和动态地形上行走可能占现实生活功能的非常重要的部分。在人类行走中看到的智能水平下适应性能的能力对于推进下肢假肢装置的当前技术水平是必要的。这项合作提案旨在研究有助于人类行走中固有的自适应智能的分层过程，并利用这些知识开发一种变革性的最先进的踝足假肢。本研究通过分析踝关节在不同顺应性表面上的动力学预期和反应机制，以及下肢相关肌肉的肌电信号，以期加深对踝关节动力学控制的科学认识。此外，通过将这些原则纳入智能踝足假肢的分层控制器的设计中，该计划将提高对先进动力踝足假肢的技术理解，使其能够适应环境，目前不可能通过最先进的假肢。

Locomotion is one of the most important human functions, serving survival, progress, and interaction. There are 2 million Americans living with an amputation and the majority of those amputations are of the lower limbs. Although current powered prostheses can accommodate walking, and in some cases running, basic functions like walking on various non-rigid or dynamic terrains are requirements that have yet to be met. The goal of this project is to develop and test a smart powered ankle-foot prosthesis that supports increased mobility for real-life activities. This smart service system will be able to identify and adapt to dynamic walking environment. Based on on-board sensing and the activations of the amputee's residual muscles, it will adapt its characteristics to allow for walking among different environments (e.g. concrete, asphalt, grass, gravel, loose sand) providing robust walking and balance to the amputee. The benefits of the acquired scientific and technological understanding from this project can extend beyond prostheses, to machines that interact with humans in cases of assistance and rehabilitation. The partnership's multidisciplinary expertise including engineering design, controls and human factors engineering, provides a unique environment for training of the students involved, and fosters an innovation culture in the next generation of researchers. State-of-the-art lower limb prostheses provide reasonable solutions for walking over constant terrain; however, studies show that walking on variable and dynamic terrain may account for a very significant part of real-life functions. The ability to adapt performance at a level of intelligence seen in human walking is necessary to advance the current state-of-the art of lower limb prosthetic devices. This collaborative proposal aims to study the hierarchical processes contributing to the adaptive intelligence inherent in human walking, and to use that knowledge to develop a transformative state-of-the-art ankle-foot prosthesis. By analyzing the anticipatory and reactive mechanisms of the ankle dynamics when stepping on surfaces of different compliance, via the electromyographic signals of the involved lower limb muscles, this research is expected to enhance the scientific understanding of the control of ankle dynamics. Moreover, by incorporating these principles into the design of a hierarchical controller for a smart ankle-foot prosthesis, this program will enhance the technological understanding of advanced powered ankle-foot prosthesis that enables adaptation to the environment, currently not possible by the state-of-the-art prostheses.