Identification of movement intention of gait on various terrains –a bioinspired approach-

Abstract

 In this paper we propose an approach to the neuromotor language of the transfemoral amputee user. We do this by identifying the user’s intention from the perception of both internal and external manifestations (to be explained into a next section) of Fixed Action Patterns (FAPs, by making use of artificial proprioception and exteroception of the prosthesis. The formalization of a General Expression of the Rhythmic Gesture, generation procedures for artificial FAPs, and a Response Algorithm for Gestures Development are presented. By identifying the user’s intention through proprioceptive and exteroceptive information, the prosthesis discriminates between repertories of artificial FAPs and chooses the most suitable one to meet the users’s requirements. Experimental data of tests carried out in healthy and amputee individuals showed high performance on identification (97.06 % of true identifications) of the user’s intention and good tracking of gestures such as gait, walking up stairs, down stairs, up hill and down hill, independently of the speed of execution of the gesture.