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CAREER: Hybrid Ankle Exoskeleton Therapy to Optimize Long-Term Gait Rehabilitation

职业：混合踝外骨骼疗法优化长期步态康复

基本信息

批准号：
2045966
负责人：
Zachary Lerner
金额：
$ 53.86万
依托单位：
Northern Arizona University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Continuing Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2021-03-01 至 2026-02-28
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2045966&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
CAREER Hybrid Ankle Exoskeleton Therapy

项目摘要

This NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project seeks to advance the scientific study of walking rehabilitation and pioneer a novel wearable rehabilitation strategy. There is a critical need for treatments that address the root causes of walking disability, including impaired strength, muscle control, and coordination. While wearable robotic exoskeletons hold potential for individuals with walking disabilities, prior research has focused on immediate improvements in walking performance from powered assistance. This project seeks to understand if alternating assistance and resistance with a wearable ankle exoskeleton will elicit greater improvements in walking than either approach alone. The outcomes of this project have the potential to transform the treatment of walking disabilities across a wide range of conditions. Through a new curriculum in assistive robotics and engineering, this project aims to motivate engineering students to address the challenges experienced by individuals with disabilities and improve engineering education on human-centered design.The purpose of this CAREER project is to develop a holistic treatment framework for gait rehabilitation based on the hybrid application of adaptive assistance and resistance and apply it to the treatment of ankle plantar-flexor dysfunction. The first objective is to establish foundational knowledge on the hybrid delivery of adaptive plantar-flexor assistance and resistance across different severities of walking impairment. The second objective is to develop a framework to optimize the long-term delivery of the hybrid exoskeleton therapy through the use of a holistic performance metric, accounting for both spatiotemporal and neuromuscular outcomes, and an artificial neural network to learn from participant responses over time. The third objective is to validate the hybrid optimization framework against training with assistance and resistance alone and compare hybrid exoskeleton training to standard gait training. This CAREER project is expected to pioneer the development of long-term human-in-the-loop optimization techniques to deliver lasting improvements in neuromuscular function and walking ability. This project will establish fundamental knowledge on the interplay between disease severity and wearable assistance and resistance. The strategies developed will be generalizable, enabling other investigators to apply this framework to different types of control algorithms, devices, joints, and patient populations. New Curriculum in Assistive Robotics and Engineering (CARE) will be developed as part of this project, incorporating advanced robotics course modules, design-for-disability capstone projects, and K-12 experiences. It is anticipated that the students involved in CARE will gain an improved understanding of the needs of people with physical disabilities, which will translate into effective engineering solutions, and result in more motivated, insightful, and impactful engineering students and professionals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个 NSF 教师早期职业发展 (CAREER) 项目旨在推进步行康复的科学研究，并开创一种新颖的可穿戴康复策略。迫切需要解决步行障碍的根本原因的治疗方法，包括力量、肌肉控制和协调能力受损。虽然可穿戴机器人外骨骼对步行障碍人士具有潜力，但之前的研究重点是通过动力辅助立即改善步行表现。该项目旨在了解可穿戴脚踝外骨骼的交替辅助和阻力是否会比单独使用任何一种方法带来更大的步行改善。该项目的成果有可能改变多种情况下步行障碍的治疗方法。该项目旨在通过辅助机器人和工程学的新课程，激励工科学生应对残疾人所经历的挑战，并改善以人为本的设计的工程教育。该职业项目的目的是开发基于自适应辅助和阻力混合应用的步态康复整体治疗框架，并将其应用于踝关节跖屈肌功能障碍的治疗。第一个目标是建立针对不同严重程度的步行障碍混合提供自适应跖屈肌辅助和阻力的基础知识。第二个目标是开发一个框架，通过使用整体性能指标来优化混合外骨骼疗法的长期交付，同时考虑时空和神经肌肉结果，以及人工神经网络来学习参与者随时间的反应。第三个目标是根据仅辅助和阻力训练来验证混合优化框架，并将混合外骨骼训练与标准步态训练进行比较。该职业项目预计将引领长期人机循环优化技术的开发，以实现神经肌肉功能和步行能力的持久改善。该项目将建立有关疾病严重程度与可穿戴辅助和抵抗之间相互作用的基础知识。开发的策略将是可推广的，使其他研究人员能够将该框架应用于不同类型的控制算法、设备、关节和患者群体。作为该项目的一部分，将开发辅助机器人和工程 (CARE) 新课程，其中包含先进的机器人课程模块、针对残疾的顶点项目和 K-12 经验。预计参与 CARE 的学生将更好地了解身体残疾人的需求，这将转化为有效的工程解决方案，并产生更有动力、更有洞察力和影响力的工程学生和专业人士。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。