Collaborative Research: SCH: Improving Older Adults' Mobility and Gait Ability in Real-World Ambulation with a Smart Robotic Ankle-Foot Orthosis

合作研究：SCH：使用智能机器人踝足矫形器提高老年人在现实世界中的活动能力和步态能力

• 批准号: 2306659
• 负责人: Xiangrong Shen
• 金额: $ 47.96万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2027-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2306659&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; SCH; Improving; Older

This project will develop a novel exoskeleton to improve walking in real-world environments. When people age and their muscle functions decline, it can limit their ability to generate enough ankle push-off power to walk normally. Mobility-challenged older adults often walk unnaturally and inefficiently. For example, they may compensate for reduced ankle push-off action by overusing the hip. This behavior not only affects the long-term health of the related leg joints, but also causes accelerated decline of physical mobility. Such mobility decline has profound impacts on older adults’ lifestyles, as well as their long-term physical and psychological health. As walking speed decreases, an elderly individual may experience unexpected difficulties in his/her daily activities (e.g., being unable to cross a busy street before the light changes). When walking becomes more strenuous, an older adult is more likely to be physically inactive and suffer from the multiple health problems associated with such a sedentary lifestyle (high blood pressure, obesity, depression, etc.). Motivated by this significant challenge, our research in this project will be dedicated to the development of a new robotic ankle-foot orthosis (exoskeleton) system to assist the user’s ankle movement when walking in real-world environments. With the robotic orthosis’ assistance, older adults may walk more naturally and efficiently with the enhanced ankle push-off, and thus enjoy significantly improved gait ability and physical mobility in their daily lives.The project will conduct multiple research activities towards the creation of the proposed robotic ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) system. It will design and fabricate a compact and lightweight Daily-Use Robotic Ankle-Foot Orthosis (DUR-AFO) to provide the desired physical assistance with little additional load to the user. Through its powered assistance to the ankle, the DUR-AFO is anticipated to induce elderly individuals to augment their ankle push-off for a more natural and efficient gait (closer to younger healthy gait) and thus improve their gait ability. Further, the project will conduct biomechanical research to investigate the human gait-control mechanisms under independently controlled bilateral robot assistance in real-world locomotion (walking and turning); we will also explore the novel approach of using real-time information feedback (vibrotactile prompts, audio cues, etc.) to empower and motivate users to maintain a desired level of muscle efforts while enjoying the powered assistance by the DUR-AFO. Finally, the project will develop a novel Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based cyber system as the basis of the human-robot synergistic collaborative system, providing multiple important functions such as adapting the robot control parameters for gait quality optimization, determining the real-time feedback to the human user, and identifying the human motion intent in the form of the desired mode of locomotion. Overall, this novel human-robot synergistic collaboration framework not only optimizes the performance of the robot assistance to the human movement, but also promotes the human user’s beneficial behavioral changes (“maintaining a desired level of muscle efforts in walking exercise”) towards the shared goal of the human-robot system (“improving the human’s gait ability and overall mobility in daily-life activities”). This project is jointly funded by Smart and Connected Health and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.

该项目将开发一种新的外骨骼，以改善在现实环境中的行走。 当人们年龄增长，肌肉功能下降时，它会限制他们产生足够的踝关节蹬离力量来正常行走的能力。行动不便的老年人经常走路不自然，效率低下。例如，他们可以通过过度使用臀部来补偿减少的踝关节推离动作。这种行为不仅会影响相关腿部关节的长期健康，还会导致身体活动能力的加速下降。这种行动能力的下降对老年人的生活方式以及他们的长期身心健康产生了深远的影响。 随着步行速度降低，老年人可能在他/她的日常活动中经历意想不到的困难（例如，不能在交通灯变亮前穿过一条忙碌街道）。当步行变得更加费力时，老年人更有可能缺乏体力活动，并患有与这种久坐不动的生活方式相关的多种健康问题（高血压，肥胖，抑郁症等）。受这一重大挑战的激励，我们在该项目中的研究将致力于开发一种新的机器人踝足矫形器（外骨骼）系统，以帮助用户在现实环境中行走时的踝关节运动。在机器人矫形器的协助下，老年人可以更自然和更有效地行走，增强踝关节的蹬离，从而大大改善他们在日常生活中的步态能力和身体活动能力。该项目将进行多项研究活动，以创建拟议的机器人踝足矫形器系统。它将设计和制造一个紧凑和轻便的日常使用机器人踝足矫形器（DUR-AFO），以提供所需的物理援助，几乎没有额外的负荷给用户。通过对踝关节的动力辅助，DUR-AFO预计将诱导老年人增加踝关节蹬离，以获得更自然和有效的步态（更接近年轻的健康步态），从而提高步态能力。此外，该项目将进行生物力学研究，以调查在现实世界的运动（行走和转弯）中独立控制的双边机器人辅助下的人类步态控制机制;我们还将探索使用实时信息反馈（振动触觉提示，音频提示等）的新方法。增强并激励使用者在享受DUR-AFO提供的动力辅助的同时，保持所需的肌肉力量水平。最后，该项目将开发一种新型的基于强化学习（RL）的网络系统，作为人机协同协作系统的基础，提供多种重要功能，例如调整机器人控制参数以优化步态质量，确定对人类用户的实时反馈，以及以所需运动模式的形式识别人类运动意图。总体而言，这种新型的人机协同协作框架不仅优化了机器人辅助人类运动的性能，而且还促进了人类用户朝着人机系统的共同目标（“提高人类日常活动中的步态能力和整体移动性”）的有益行为变化（“在步行锻炼中保持期望的肌肉努力水平”）。该项目由Smart and Connected Health和刺激竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。