NCT06306352

Vibrotactile Feedback in Exoskeletons

The Effect of Vibrotactile Feedback on Exoskeleton Use in People With Motor Complete Spinal Cord Injury

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 7 (actual)
• Sponsor: Sint Maartenskliniek · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study aims to investigate the impact of providing discrete vibrotactile feedback related to weight shift and step initiation on exoskeleton use in individuals with motor-complete SCI.

Detailed description

Rationale: People with motor-complete spinal cord injury (SCI) lack motor function below the lesion level and are, thus, wheelchair-dependent. In recent years, wearable exoskeletons have emerged as potential mobility devices for this population. Although exoskeletons generate the basic motions for ambulation, postural stability must be maintained by the user. People with motor-complete SCI miss essential somatosensory perception, which affects their ability to maintain postural stability. Hence, walking in an exoskeleton is demanding, and crutches are necessary. When sensory information of a specific system is lost, the lack of sensory information can be substituted by providing feedback to another sensory system. As sensory feedback has been shown to improve postural control in people missing essential sensory information, such sensory substitution may also be effectively incorporated in people with complete SCI using an exoskeleton. Objective: The study aims to investigate the effect of vibrotactile feedback on exoskeleton use in people with motor-complete SCI. Study design: The proposed study is an experimental study. The study protocol includes six sessions of 90 minutes spread over three weeks. Sessions one to five are dedicated to training to assess the effect of vibrotactile feedback on exoskeleton motor learning. Session six is dedicated to evaluation to assess the effect of vibrotactile feedback on exoskeleton motor control.

Conditions

• Spinal Cord Injuries

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Vibrotactile feedback	The ABLE exoskeleton is accompanied by a vibrotactile feedback belt which users wear around their chest to receive real-time feedback during the double support phase. This feedback can assist them in their weight shift during the double support phase.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-03-06
• Primary completion: 2023-06-21
• Completion: 2023-06-21
• First posted: 2024-03-12
• Last updated: 2024-03-12

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Netherlands