Control of a smart ankle-foot prosthesis for dynamic environment

Abstract: This project aims to advance the current state-of-the art of lower limb prostheses by mimicking the ability to adapt performance at a level of intelligence seen in human walking. The research is a partnership with industry in order to develop a unique approach to the design and development of a smart ankle-foot prosthesis. This research can revolutionize lower limb prostheses design and development by integrating bio-inspired intelligence with biomimetic mechanics into a highly maneuverable and smart ankle-foot prosthesis that can improve the quality of life for lower-limb amputees. The proposed system will be based on the powered ankle prosthesis for which a hierarchical controller based on embedded sensors and electromyographic recordings from the residual limb will be developed. The electromyographic signals will provide real-time information related to modulating the dynamics of interaction between the prosthesis and the environment. The outcome of the research is a unique prosthesis that interacts in an intelligent way with the human and provides robust performance over a plethora of real-life challenges that have yet to be addressed by existing prostheses.

Results: Results so far show that gait kinematics and muscle activations differ when humans step on compliant surfaces, in preparation to the first step. This information can be used for the control of a smart lower limb prosthesis that can modulate its control in anticipation of the first step to the compliant surface and provide increased balance and robustness during gait.

Funding: This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (2017-2020, Award #2020009) and (2018-2022, Award #2025797).

Publications: (see Publications page for a more recent list of papers)

Emiliano Quinones Yumbla, Ruby Afriyie Obeng, Jeffrey Ward, Thomas Sugar, and Panagiotis Artemiadis. “Anticipatory muscle responses in transitions from rigid to compliant surfaces: towards smart ankle-foot prostheses.” In 2019 IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), pp. 880-885. IEEE, 2019. RehabWeek Paper Award Finalist [pdf]

Jeffrey Skidmore and Panagiotis Artemiadis. “A Comprehensive Analysis of Sensorimotor Mechanisms of Inter-Leg Coordination in Gait Using the Variable Stiffness Treadmill: Physiological Insights for Improved Robot-Assisted Gait Therapy.” In 2019 IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), pp. 28-33. IEEE, 2019. [pdf]

Linda Fou, Jeffrey Skidmore and Panagiotis Artemiadis, “The Variable Impedance Treadmill (VIT) for Robot-assisted Rehabilitation,” Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) 2017.

Jeffrey Skidmore and Panagiotis Artemiadis, “Sudden changes in walking surface compliance evoke contralateral EMG in a hemiparetic walker: a case study of inter-leg coordination after neurological injury,’’ 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC’16), pp. 4682-4685, 2016. [pdf]

Jeffrey Skidmore and Panagiotis Artemiadis. “On the effect of walking surface stiffness on inter-limb coordination in human walking: toward bilaterally informed robotic gait rehabilitation.” Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 13.23, pp 1-15, 2016. [link to pdf]

Jeffrey Skidmore and Panagiotis Artemiadis “Unilateral Walking Surface Stiffness Perturbations Evoke Brain Responses: Toward Bilaterally Informed Robot-assisted Gait Rehabilitation,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 3698-3703, 2016. [pdf]

Jeffrey Skidmore and Panagiotis Artemiadis “Leg Muscle Activation Evoked by Floor Stiffness Perturbations: A Novel Approach to Robot-assisted Gait Rehabilitation,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 6463-6468, 2015. [pdf]

Ryan Frost, Jeffrey Skidmore, Marco Santello and Panagiotis Artemiadis, “Sensorimotor control of gait: A novel approach for the study of the interplay of visual and proprioceptive feedback,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 9:14, 2015. [link to pdf]

Jeffrey Skidmore, Andrew Barkan and Panagiotis Artemiadis, “Variable Stiffness Treadmill (VST): System Development, Characterization and Preliminary Experiments,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 20, issue 4, pp. 1717-1724, 2015. [pdf]

Jeffrey Skidmore, Andrew Barkan and Panagiotis Artemiadis, “Investigation of Contralateral Leg Response to Unilateral Stiffness Perturbations using a Novel Device,” IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 2081-2086, 2014. [pdf]

Andrew Barkan, Jeffrey Skidmore, Panagiotis Artemiadis, “Variable Stiffness Treadmill (VST): a Novel Tool for the Investigation of Gait,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 2838-2843, 2014. [pdf]

Patents

Panagiotis Artemiadis and Andrew Barkan, “Variable Stiffness Treadmill System”, U.S. Patent No. 9,757,610. 12 Sep. 2017.