FURI | Spring 2020

Modeling of Environment Dependent Modulation of Ankle Impedance During Walking

The motivation for this research is to model the impedance of the human ankle during walking in variable environments. In order to characterize ankle impedance, subjects walk over a robotic platform in a rigid or compliant state. The platform perturbs the ankle throughout the stance phase of walking while platform torque, ankle angle, and muscle activity are recorded in order to calculate the modulation of ankle impedance. This research allows for modeling of actively controlled healthy human ankles in order to aid in the controller design of lower extremity wearable robotics, which currently struggle to adapt to changing environments.