Degrees-of-freedom of a robotic exoskeleton and human adaptation to new gait templates

Abstract

This paper addresses an important question in the field of rehabilitation robotics that can help engineers to develop and optimize future gait training robotic exoskeletons. This question can be posed as follows: Do the exoskeleton's degrees-of-freedom at the pelvis affect human adaptation to new gait templates? More specifically, would additional degrees-of-freedom in the exoskeleton that allow the human trunk to translate and rotate, and the hips to abduct/adduct increase human gait adaptation with an exoskeleton?