Gait control of powered exoskeleton with finger-mounted walk controller for paraplegic patient

This paper proposes a wearable interface to control a walk for paraplegic patients wearing an underactuated powered exoskeleton on lower limbs. Current powered exoskeletons are helpful for patient´s walk. However, there are differences between wearer´s intentions and actual leg motions. In order to synchronize them, more leg motions such as leg-swing, stride and foot-height should be controlled by a user. The proposed interface enables the user to convey the user´s intention such leg motions. At the first stage, a motion simulator is controlled to verify the effectiveness of our interface. We confirmed the timing of leg-swing is adjusted as the wearer intends through 10-meter walk experiment and the motion simulator finished walking 10-meter within three minutes.