A force-based human machine interface to drive a motorized upper limb exoskeleton. a pilot study

Muscular dystrophy is a strongly invalidating disease that causes the progressive loss of motor skills. The use of assistive devices, especially those in support of the upper limb, can increase the ability to perform daily-life activities and foster a partial recovery of the lost motor functionalities. However, for the use of these devices to be truly effective and accepted by patients, their activation must coincide with the user's intention to move. This work describes a new human-machine interface based on the integration of a six-axis force sensor to drive an upper limb motorized exoskeleton. This novel system can detect the patient's intention to move and produce displacements of the robotic device that are of magnitude and direction consistent with the user's wishes. The integration of the force-sensor interface in the BRIDGE/EMPATIA exoskeletal system was successful, and tests performed on both healthy and dystrophic subjects showed promising results, especially for the execution of planar movements.