Human machine interface for human exoskeleton

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9295604-B2
Application number	US-201113824161-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2011
Priority date	Sep 17, 2010
Publication date	Mar 29, 2016
Grant date	Mar 29, 2016

Abstract

A powered exoskeleton configured to be coupled to lower limbs of a person is controlled to impart a movement desired by the person. The intent of the person is determined by a controller based on monitoring at least one of: positional changes in an arm portion of the person, positional changes in a head of the person, an orientation of a walking aid employed by the person, a contact force between a walking aid employed by the person and a support surface, a force imparted by the person on the walking aid, a force imparted by the person on the walking aid, a relative orientation of the exoskeleton, moveable components of the exoskeleton and the person, and relative velocities between the exoskeleton, moveable components of the exoskeleton and the person.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of controlling a powered exoskeleton configured to be coupled to lower limbs of a person comprising:
establishing a control parameter based on monitoring at least one of: positional changes in an arm portion of the person, positional changes in a head of the person, an orientation of a walking aid employed by the person, a contact force between a walking aid employed by the person and a support surface, a force imparted by the person on a walking aid used by the person, a force imparted by the person on a walking aid used by the person, a relative orientation of the exoskeleton, moveable components of the exoskeleton and the person, and relative velocities between the exoskeleton, moveable components of the exoskeleton and the person;
determining a desired movement for the lower limbs of the person based on the control parameter; and
controlling the exoskeleton to impart the desired movement.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said exoskeleton further includes a plurality of modes of operation and wherein the method uses the intent to establish an operational mode from said plurality of modes of operation.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said exoskeleton further includes a plurality of modes of operation and wherein the method uses the intent to modify at least one characteristic of an operational mode of the plurality of modes of operation.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the operational mode constitutes stepping.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said characteristic is a length of a step.

6. A method of controlling a powered exoskeleton configured to be coupled to lower limbs of a person comprising:
establishing a control parameter based on monitoring positional changes in an arm portion of the person;
determining a desired movement for the lower limbs of the person based on the control parameter; and
controlling the exoskeleton to impart the desired movement.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the control parameter is established based on monitoring an orientation of the arm portion of the person.

8. The method of claim 7 where the orientation of the arm portion is monitored through the use of at least one sensor measuring at least one of acceleration, angular velocity, absolute position, position of the arm portion relative to a portion of the exoskeleton, position of the arm portion relative to another body portion of the person, absolute velocity, velocity relative to the exoskeleton, and velocity relative to the person.

9. A method of controlling a powered exoskeleton configured to be coupled to lower limbs of a person comprising:
establishing a control parameter based on an orientation of a head of the person;
determining a desired movement for the lower limbs of the person based on the control parameter; and
controlling the exoskeleton to impart the desired movement.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: determining when the exoskeleton should turn based on the orientation of the head of the person.

11. A method of controlling a powered exoskeleton configured to be coupled to lower limbs of a person comprising:
establishing a control parameter based on an orientation of a walking aid employed by the person;
determining a desired movement for the lower limbs of the person based on the control parameter; and
controlling the exoskeleton to impart the desired movement.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising: manually initiating or changing a mode of operation of the exoskeleton through operation of at least one switch provided on the walking aid.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the walking aid constitutes at least one crutch.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein at least one sensor is employed to measure an angular orientation of said at least one crutch.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising: measuring the angular orientation with respect to gravity.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising: measuring the angular orientation with respect to a magnetic field of the earth.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising: measuring the angular orientation with respect to the exoskeleton.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein a linear position of said walking aid is measured.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:
defining a space around the exoskeleton utilizing three mutually orthogonal axes, with a first of said orthogonal axes lying in a plane parallel with the supporting surface and extending parallel to a direction in which the person is facing, a second of said orthogonal axes lying in a plane parallel with the supporting surface and extending perpendicular to the direction in which the person is facing, and a third of said orthogonal axes being mutually orthogonal to both the first and second axes, and
measuring the linear position along at least one of said first, second and third axes.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the linear position is measured from the exoskeleton to the walking aid along the first axis.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the linear position is constituted by a position of a ground contact point of the walking aid in all three mutually orthogonal axes.

22. The method of claim 11 further comprising: controlling trajectories of motion of said exoskeleton as a function of the orientation of the walking aid.

23. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
recording the orientation over a period of time to produce an orientation trajectory;
comparing said orientation trajectory to a plurality of trajectories, each of which corresponds to a possible user intention, and
determining the intent of the person to be the possible user intention if the orientation trajectory is sufficiently close to the possible user intention.

24. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
determining the orientation from at least two sensor signals;
recording the at least two sensor signals over a period of time; and
paramaterizing at least a first one of the at least two sensor signals as a function of a second one of at least two signals to produce an orientation trajectory that is not a function of time;
comparing the orientation trajectory to a plurality of trajectories, each of which corresponds to a possible user intention, and
determining the intent of the person to be said possible user intention if said orientation trajectory is sufficiently close to said possible user intention.

25. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
establishing a virtual boundary measured in a common space with said orientation;
controlling the exoskeleton to initiate a gait when the orientation is outside the virtual boundary; and
controlling the exoskeleton to not initiate a gait when the orientation is within said virtual boundary.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein said virtual boundary is in a plane of a support surface for the walking aid.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the virtual boundary is constituted by a circle on the plane of the supporting surface.

28. A method of controlling a powered exoskeleton configured to be coupled to lower limbs of a person comprising:
establishing a control parameter based on a contact force between a walking aid employed by the person and a support surface;
determining a desired movement for the lower limbs of the person based on the control parameter; and
controlling the exoskeleton to impart the desired mo

Assignees

• Zoss Adam
• Strausser Katherine
• Swift Tim
• Angold Russ
• Burns Jon
• Fairbanks Dylan
• Harding Nathan
• Ekso Bionics Inc
• Univ California

Inventors

• Zoss Adam
• Strausser Katherine
• Swift Tim
• Angold Russ
• Burns Jon
• Kazerooni Homayoon
• Fairbanks Dylan
• Harding Nathan

Classifications

• A61H1/0255 Primary

  Both knee and hip of a patient, e.g. in supine or sitting position, the feet being moved together in a plane substantially parallel to the body-symmetrical plane (A61H1/0214 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61H2201/1616

  Holding means therefor · CPC title

• A61H2201/5092

  Optical sensor · CPC title

• A61H2201/1642

  Holding means therefor · CPC title

• A61H3/04

  Wheeled walking aids for patients or disabled persons · CPC title