A Human Augmentation Approach to Gait Restoration

Impaired gait can be restored to its physiological level using wearable robotic systems acting alongside human lower limbs and providing assistive forces that adapt to the residual sensory-motor capabilities of the wearer. Such systems can be used as assistive aids (to overcome disabilities or age-related impairments) or as rehabilitation tools (to restore physical and neurological abilities through proper training). In order to elicit physiological gait as a behavior emerging from the interaction between the robot and the user, the robot morphology must be considered as an open design variable, thus relaxing the constraint of using basically anthropomorphic architectures. This chapter deals with several design aspects related to this approach for the development of lower limbs wearable robots. In particular, it analyzes kinematic compatibility issues, possible topological connections among robotic elements, morphological optimization of robot properties, actuation solutions with series compliance, interaction control schemes and user’s intention detection strategies. Pilot tests on a novel non-anthropomorphic device, developed according to the proposed approach, are presented as a case-study, exemplifying the main design aspects described within the chapter.