Collaborative Research: Smart Shoes and Smart Socks for Abnormal Gait Diagnosis and Assistance

本研究将调查的基本问题，需要开发先进的传感和机电一体化技术的移动的辅助设备，将帮助老年人和病人完全或部分失去了行走的能力和/或假设一个无效的异常模式的运动。即将开发的两个新传感器系统是：1）智能鞋，由加州大学伯克利分校开发; 2）智能袜，由马里兰州大学开发。所提出的分析和识别方法将具有以下能力：1）识别人体运动的阶段，2）量化患者步态的异常，以及3）估计用于辅助设备的反馈控制的人体关节扭矩。将通过临床试验对表现出正常步态以及异常步态的人类受试者评估运动相位识别的有效性。结果将以各种方式使用，例如向患者提供反馈信息，以帮助他们恢复正常步态。该研究计划还涉及一个国际组成部分，与日本筑波大学的研究人员合作，将这些传感器和运动分析策略集成到外骨骼“HAL”中，这是当今最复杂的外骨骼，可用于帮助患者。该项目团队是多学科和国际化的，它包括来自美国两所领先工程学院的首席研究员，具有物理治疗专业知识的Byl博士，Y教授。筑波大学的三井，研究生研究人员和本科生研究人员。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括对改善身体受损的人以及有行走问题的老年人的生活质量的贡献。它也将提供一个强大的工具，物理治疗师在诊断步态的病人。实验测试设置将为本科生提供一个理想的环境，有机电一体化的经验，并将提供给我们的本科实验室课程。 研究生将前往日本，在不同于美国的文化中获得学术和社会经验。这是根据NSF-JST协议的美日安全社会传感器研究项目。

This research will investigate fundamental issues needed to develop advanced sensing and mechatronic technologies for mobile assistive devices that will assist elderly people and patients who have totally or partially lost the capability to walk and/or assumed an inefficient abnormal pattern of movement. The two new sensor systems to be developed are: 1) smart shoes, developed at the University of California at Berkeley, and 2) smart socks, developed at the University of Maryland. The proposed analysis and recognition method will have the following capabilities: 1) identification of the phases of human motion, 2) quantification of the abnormality of a patient's gait, and 3) estimation of the human joint torques for the feedback control of assistive devices. The effectiveness of motion phase identification will be evaluated on human subjects who exhibit a normal gait as well as those with an abnormal gait through clinical tests. Results will be utilized in a variety of ways such as providing feedback information to patients to help them resume a normal gait. The research program also involves an international component, working with researchers at Tsukuba University, Japan on integration of these sensors and motion analysis strategies into the exoskeleton 'HAL', the most sophisticated exoskeleton available today to assist patients. The project team is multidisciplinary and international, and it includes Principal Investigators from two leading engineering schools in the United States, Dr. Byl with expertise in physical therapy, Professor Y. Sankai of Tsukuba University, graduate student researchers and undergraduate researchers. The broader impacts of this research include contributions to betterment of the quality of life of physically impaired people as well as elderly people having walking problems. It will also provide a powerful tool to physical therapists in the diagnosis of gait of patients. Experimental test setups will provide an ideal environment for undergraduate students to have mechatronics experience, and will be made available to our undergraduate laboratory course. Graduate students will travel to Japan to have academic and social experience in a culture different from those in the United States.This is a US-Japan research project on sensor for the safe and secured society under the NSF-JST agreement.