A Workaround for Recruitment Issues in Preliminary WR Studies: Audio Feedback and Instrumented Crutches to Train Test Subjects

Abstract

One of the main problems in studies involving exoskeletons for assisting gait of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) users is recruitment of a suitable number of subjects, especially when age, gender, and pathologies are considered. Studies involving able-bodied subjects could instead rely on a considerable number of subjects, but the reliability of the results when transferred to real exoskeleton users is limited. This limitation could be partially solved using able-bodied subjects for preliminary tests. In this paper, we describe a first approach to train able-bodied subjects to behave as SCI subjects during walking. An audio feedback driven by a pair of instrumented crutches has been used to train healthy subjects during exoskeleton walking. To test the system, 22 able-bodied subjects have been analyzed during a straight walk with and without the audio feedback. Results show that the audio feedback induces a learning effect and a persistency effect in the participants.