XoSoft Connected Monitor (XCM) Unsupervised Monitoring and Feedback in Soft Exoskeletons of 3D Kinematics, Kinetics, Behavioral Context and Control System Status

Abstract

Intelligent soft exoskeletons are developed to be used unsupervised and continuously on a large scale in normal daily situations. As they miss the stiffness of the structural components of traditional robotic devices, traditional robotic movement assessment are rendered useless, as they assume structural segment rigidity. This all requires a radical different approach towards (remote) monitoring and feedback of data relevant to a host of different type users: clinicians and therapists responsible for training and well-being of patient, caregivers, maintenance technicians and even the exoskeleton’s control system. This paper proposes such a system, one implementation of which is developed and tested within the XoSoft soft exoskeleton project. It provides continuous remote (partly IMMU based) assessment of 3D kinematics and kinetics, control system activity, subject activity pattern and derived movement pattern parameters. It also is structured in a maximally flexible way facilitating the ever-shifting, optimal distribution of functional software modules over more peripheral and central hardware to accommodate for fast changes in specifications and technical and practical constraints.

This project has been supported by Horizon 2020 program project XoSoft (688175) and by projects AmbuLab, FreeMotion and Fusion from Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Netherlands.