Symbitron Exoskeleton: Design, Control, and Evaluation of a Modular Exoskeleton for Incomplete and Complete Spinal Cord Injured Individuals

In this paper, we present the design, control, and preliminary evaluation of Symbitron exoskeleton, a lower limb modular exoskeleton developed for people with spinal cord injury. The mechanical electrical configuration controller can be personalized to accommodate differences in impairments among individuals injuries (SCI). hardware, personalization is accomplished by approach that allows reconfiguration lower-limb ultimately eight powered series actuated (SEA) joints high fidelity torque control. For SCI an incomplete lesion sufficient hip applied trajectory-free neuromuscular control (NMC) strategy used ankle-knee configuration. complete individuals, combination NMC impedance based trajectory tracking ankle-knee-hip Results hardware software showed could naturally vary their walking speed step length walked faster compared without device. lesion, who not walk support, were able device support crutches included push-button initiation Our results demonstrate limited or no function receive tailored regain mobility.