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Main Authors: Xing, Haosen, Ma, Haoran, Zhang, Sijin, Geyer, Hartmut
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01111
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author Xing, Haosen
Ma, Haoran
Zhang, Sijin
Geyer, Hartmut
author_facet Xing, Haosen
Ma, Haoran
Zhang, Sijin
Geyer, Hartmut
contents Current control strategies for powered lower limb prostheses often lack awareness of the environment and the user's intended interactions with it. This limitation becomes particularly apparent in complex terrains. Obstacle negotiation, a critical scenario exemplifying such challenges, requires both real-time perception of obstacle geometry and responsiveness to user intention about when and where to step over or onto, to dynamically adjust swing trajectories. We propose a novel control strategy that fuses environmental awareness and human cooperativeness: an on-board depth camera detects obstacles ahead of swing phase, prompting an elevated early-swing trajectory to ensure clearance, while late-swing control defers to natural biomechanical cues from the user. This approach enables intuitive stepping strategies without requiring unnatural movement patterns. Experiments with three non-amputee participants demonstrated 100 percent success across more than 150 step-overs and 30 step-ons with randomly placed obstacles of varying heights (4-16 cm) and distances (15-70 cm). By effectively addressing obstacle navigation -- a gateway challenge for complex terrain mobility -- our system demonstrates adaptability to both environmental constraints and user intentions, with promising applications across diverse locomotion scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_01111
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Environment-Aware and Human-Cooperative Swing Control for Lower-Limb Prostheses in Diverse Obstacle Scenarios
Xing, Haosen
Ma, Haoran
Zhang, Sijin
Geyer, Hartmut
Robotics
Human-Computer Interaction
Current control strategies for powered lower limb prostheses often lack awareness of the environment and the user's intended interactions with it. This limitation becomes particularly apparent in complex terrains. Obstacle negotiation, a critical scenario exemplifying such challenges, requires both real-time perception of obstacle geometry and responsiveness to user intention about when and where to step over or onto, to dynamically adjust swing trajectories. We propose a novel control strategy that fuses environmental awareness and human cooperativeness: an on-board depth camera detects obstacles ahead of swing phase, prompting an elevated early-swing trajectory to ensure clearance, while late-swing control defers to natural biomechanical cues from the user. This approach enables intuitive stepping strategies without requiring unnatural movement patterns. Experiments with three non-amputee participants demonstrated 100 percent success across more than 150 step-overs and 30 step-ons with randomly placed obstacles of varying heights (4-16 cm) and distances (15-70 cm). By effectively addressing obstacle navigation -- a gateway challenge for complex terrain mobility -- our system demonstrates adaptability to both environmental constraints and user intentions, with promising applications across diverse locomotion scenarios.
title Environment-Aware and Human-Cooperative Swing Control for Lower-Limb Prostheses in Diverse Obstacle Scenarios
topic Robotics
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01111