Method of automatic biomedical signals interpretation for safety supervision and optimisation of the exoskeleton-aided physiotherapy of lower extremity

Abstract

Rehabilitation robots help physiotherapists in performing repetitive and tiring tasks. Moreover, they are also capable of automating therapy. However, for such an application, they require algorithms assessing patient’s performance and monitoring their safety. In therapy of lower extremities aided with exoskeletons, biosignal measurements can be used additionally to dynamics parameters to provide the mentioned analyses. The paper presents a concept of assessing the treatment based on electromyography of selected muscular groups and assessing the patient’s emotional states based on electroencephalography. The preliminary measurements enabled defining expected muscular activity dependent on the extremity configuration and emotional states based on the frequency analysis of the scalp regions. The presented methodology contains measurement flow, interpreting algorithms, and reactions of the systems to the defined states. Use of this can contribute to the development of minimally supervised systems for home-like environment use. The presented universal method is easily transferable to the exoskeleton-based systems, even different in terms of kinematics. Furthermore, it can also be analogically introduced to the systems dedicated to the upper extremities.