Assessing the Cognitive Demand of Hand Controlled Exoskeleton Walking

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2022

Abstract

Individuals with spinal cord injury have motor and sensory deficits leading to ambulatory problems. Our current research is focused on developing innovative control mechanisms for wearable robotic exoskeletons to provide such users with complete control of their gait while allowing them to perform other activities (such as conversing, etc.). In this study, we evaluated the cognitive load due to using the user's hand movement to control the gait of a robot using a dual-task paradigm. The results show that there was no difference in symmetry and duty cycle between with and without a competing cognitive task, and the number of cognitive responses was similar to healthy controls walking on the treadmill. There was also no difference in obstacle navigation with and without the cognitive task. Results of this study suggest that using our control mechanisms is intuitive, easy to learn, and requires cognitive attention that is similar to normal human walking. Clinical Relevance - Initial evidence to understand the effects of the novel control mechanism on cognitive load over that of typical walking.

Identifier

85138127405 (Scopus)

ISBN

[9781728127828]

Publication Title

Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society EMBS

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC48229.2022.9871565

ISSN

1557170X

PubMed ID

36085752

First Page

4338

Last Page

4341

Volume

2022-July

Grant

90RE5021

Fund Ref

Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation

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