Human-in-the-loop Optimisation in Robot-assisted Gait Training

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Christou, Andreas, Sochopoulos, Andreas, Lister, Elliot, Vijayakumar, Sethu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Christou, Andreas
Sochopoulos, Andreas
Lister, Elliot
Vijayakumar, Sethu
author_facet Christou, Andreas
Sochopoulos, Andreas
Lister, Elliot
Vijayakumar, Sethu
contents Wearable robots offer a promising solution for quantitatively monitoring gait and providing systematic, adaptive assistance to promote patient independence and improve gait. However, due to significant interpersonal and intrapersonal variability in walking patterns, it is important to design robot controllers that can adapt to the unique characteristics of each individual. This paper investigates the potential of human-in-the-loop optimisation (HILO) to deliver personalised assistance in gait training. The Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) was employed to continuously optimise an assist-as-needed controller of a lower-limb exoskeleton. Six healthy individuals participated over a two-day experiment. Our results suggest that while the CMA-ES appears to converge to a unique set of stiffnesses for each individual, no measurable impact on the subjects' performance was observed during the validation trials. These findings highlight the impact of human-robot co-adaptation and human behaviour variability, whose effect may be greater than potential benefits of personalising rule-based assistive controllers. Our work contributes to understanding the limitations of current personalisation approaches in exoskeleton-assisted gait rehabilitation and identifies key challenges for effective implementation of human-in-the-loop optimisation in this domain.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_05780
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Human-in-the-loop Optimisation in Robot-assisted Gait Training
Christou, Andreas
Sochopoulos, Andreas
Lister, Elliot
Vijayakumar, Sethu
Robotics
Systems and Control
Wearable robots offer a promising solution for quantitatively monitoring gait and providing systematic, adaptive assistance to promote patient independence and improve gait. However, due to significant interpersonal and intrapersonal variability in walking patterns, it is important to design robot controllers that can adapt to the unique characteristics of each individual. This paper investigates the potential of human-in-the-loop optimisation (HILO) to deliver personalised assistance in gait training. The Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) was employed to continuously optimise an assist-as-needed controller of a lower-limb exoskeleton. Six healthy individuals participated over a two-day experiment. Our results suggest that while the CMA-ES appears to converge to a unique set of stiffnesses for each individual, no measurable impact on the subjects' performance was observed during the validation trials. These findings highlight the impact of human-robot co-adaptation and human behaviour variability, whose effect may be greater than potential benefits of personalising rule-based assistive controllers. Our work contributes to understanding the limitations of current personalisation approaches in exoskeleton-assisted gait rehabilitation and identifies key challenges for effective implementation of human-in-the-loop optimisation in this domain.
title Human-in-the-loop Optimisation in Robot-assisted Gait Training
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05780