Ingenuity Labs Research Institute, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Proc Biol Sci. 2021 Aug 11;288(1956):20211197. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1197. Epub 2021 Aug 4.
Technological advancements in robotic devices have the potential to transform human mobility through gait assistance. However, the integration of physical hardware and software control algorithms with users to assist with impaired gait poses several challenges, such as allowing the user to adopt a variety of gaits and the process for evaluating the efficacy and performance of these assistive devices. Here, I discuss some of the challenges in the development of assistive devices and the use of biomechanical concepts and tools for control and test validation. Several potential solutions are proposed through the case study of one project that aimed to provide gait assistance for individuals with a spinal cord injury. Further challenges and future directions are discussed, with emphasis that diverse perspectives and approaches in gait assistance will accelerate engineering solutions towards regaining mobility.
机器人技术的进步有可能通过步态辅助来改变人类的移动能力。然而，将物理硬件和软件控制算法与用户集成以辅助受损的步态会带来一些挑战，例如允许用户采用多种步态以及评估这些辅助设备的效果和性能的过程。在这里，我讨论了辅助设备开发以及控制和测试验证中使用生物力学概念和工具的一些挑战。通过一个旨在为脊髓损伤患者提供步态辅助的项目案例，提出了几种潜在的解决方案。进一步讨论了挑战和未来方向，并强调了在步态辅助方面的多样化观点和方法将加速工程解决方案以恢复移动能力。
