Merging Humans and Machines to Assist Legged Locomotion

Abstract

Robotic technologies have greatly advanced in recent years, enabling the creation of new wearable sensors and motorized devices. Robotic exoskeletons for human performance augmentation or neurological rehabilitation are in development and testing at many locations around the globe. Bionic lower limb prostheses are becoming practical solutions for amputees. However, one of the fundamental roadblocks for both robotic exoskeletons and bionic prostheses is the control. Better control approaches are needed to make the devices move in smooth coordination with the human users. One possibility to get better control of wearable robotic devices is to obtain feedforward neural commands from the user. Ferris will present on research aimed at merging humans and machines, outlining the major obstacles remaining to produce truly cooperative human-machine systems.