Interactive Gait Assistance Experience Lab

通过机器人系统帮助人类移动是一个很有前途的研究领域，同时也是一个具有挑战性的研究领域。在人口老龄化等社会需求的推动下，可穿戴机器人系统在辅助、恢复和训练运动功能方面的潜力得到了深入的研究。然而，由于与人类用户的密切交互，关于系统、组件和算法的开发仍然存在许多悬而未决的问题，特别是在考虑人为因素的情况下。因此，可穿戴机器人系统代表了弗里德里希-亚历山大-纽伦堡大学(FAU)工程学院多个教席和系的核心研究课题。我们的目标是探索以人为中心的机器人技术，并找到结合高功能和用户友好的交互特性的解决方案。通过新的交互式步态辅助体验实验室，(运动)辅助系统中人机交互的实验测试的可能性将显著扩大。重点是研究现实环境中的生物力学和心理效应，以分析它们与不同技术实现的相互作用，并将研究结果系统地纳入系统工程方法。除了运动场景的模拟之外，与辅助系统的物理交互的模拟也起着核心作用。人在环实验系统用于分析(腿部)的运动辅助：通过结合用于模拟物理和认知交互的商业产品，用户可以在可动态更改的虚拟环境中体验各种机器人辅助系统。这使得从生物力学和心理学的角度更深入地了解个体的互动体验，并在技术开发期间和机电一体化实施之前考虑到这一点。这一主要的研究仪器结合了高度动态的仪表化双带跑步机(可以通过沿额外自由度移动来产生扰动)、精确的运动捕获系统、虚拟(运动)环境的投影系统以及用于模拟假肢/外骨骼组件的模块化系统，这使得在实际实施之前可以灵活地比较各种技术解决方案。这种设备组合可能在全球范围内是独一无二的，旨在通过可穿戴机器人系统为美国联邦航空局厄兰根-纽伦堡分校提供可持续的装备，用于运动辅助领域的跨学科尖端研究，从而为各种(国际)国家合作奠定基础。

Assisting human movements via robotic systems is a promising and at the same time challenging research area. Motivated by societal needs, such as the aging population, the potential of wearable robotic systems to assist, restore, and train motor functions is investigated intensively. However, due to the close interaction with human users, many open questions remain regarding the development of the systems, components, and algorithms, especially when human factors are considered. Therefore, wearable robotic systems represent a core research topic of several chairs and departments of the Faculty of Engineering at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). Our goal is to explore human-centered robotics and to find solutions that combine high functionality and user-friendly interaction properties. Through the new "Interactive Gait Assistance Experience Lab", the possibilities for experimental examination of human-machine interaction in (locomotion) assistance systems will be significantly expanded. The focus is on the investigation of biomechanical and psychological effects in realistic contexts in order to analyze their interactions with different technical implementations and to systematically incorporate the findings into systems engineering methods. In addition to the simulation of the locomotion scenario, the emulation of the physical interaction with the assistance system plays a central role. The human-in-the-loop experimental system serves to analyze the motion assistance (of the lower extremities): By combining commercially available products for simulating physical and cognitive interaction, users can experience a wide variety of robotic assistance systems in a dynamically modifiable virtual environment. This allows individual interaction experiences to be understood more deeply, both biomechanically and psychologically, and to be taken into account during technical development and thus before mechatronic implementation. This major research instrumentation combines a highly dynamic, instrumented dual-belt treadmill, which can generate perturbations through moving along additional degrees of freedom, with a precise motion capture system, a system for the projection of virtual (locomotion) environments as well as a modular system for the emulation of prosthesis/exoskeleton components, which allows the flexible comparison of a wide variety of technical solutions before the actual implementation. This combination of devices, which is probably unique worldwide, is intended to equip FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg sustainably for interdisciplinary cutting-edge research in the field of motion assistance through wearable robotic systems, thus creating the basis for diverse (inter)national collaborations.