Augmenting Human Balance with Generic Supernumerary Robotic Limbs

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Qiu, Xuanyun, Verdel, Dorian, Cervantes-Culebro, Hector, Devillard, Alexis, Burdet, Etienne
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Qiu, Xuanyun
Verdel, Dorian
Cervantes-Culebro, Hector
Devillard, Alexis
Burdet, Etienne
author_facet Qiu, Xuanyun
Verdel, Dorian
Cervantes-Culebro, Hector
Devillard, Alexis
Burdet, Etienne
contents Supernumerary robotic limbs (SLs) have the potential to transform a wide range of human activities, yet their usability remains limited by key technical challenges, particularly in ensuring safety and achieving versatile control. Here, we address the critical problem of maintaining balance in the human-SLs system, a prerequisite for safe and comfortable augmentation tasks. Unlike previous approaches that developed SLs specifically for stability support, we propose a general framework for preserving balance with SLs designed for generic use. Our hierarchical three-layer architecture consists of: (i) a prediction layer that estimates human trunk and center of mass (CoM) dynamics, (ii) a planning layer that generates optimal CoM trajectories to counteract trunk movements and computes the corresponding SL control inputs, and (iii) a control layer that executes these inputs on the SL hardware. We evaluated the framework with ten participants performing forward and lateral bending tasks. The results show a clear reduction in stance instability, demonstrating the framework's effectiveness in enhancing balance. This work paves the path towards safe and versatile human-SLs interactions. [This paper has been submitted for publication to IEEE.]
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_15092
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Augmenting Human Balance with Generic Supernumerary Robotic Limbs
Qiu, Xuanyun
Verdel, Dorian
Cervantes-Culebro, Hector
Devillard, Alexis
Burdet, Etienne
Robotics
Supernumerary robotic limbs (SLs) have the potential to transform a wide range of human activities, yet their usability remains limited by key technical challenges, particularly in ensuring safety and achieving versatile control. Here, we address the critical problem of maintaining balance in the human-SLs system, a prerequisite for safe and comfortable augmentation tasks. Unlike previous approaches that developed SLs specifically for stability support, we propose a general framework for preserving balance with SLs designed for generic use. Our hierarchical three-layer architecture consists of: (i) a prediction layer that estimates human trunk and center of mass (CoM) dynamics, (ii) a planning layer that generates optimal CoM trajectories to counteract trunk movements and computes the corresponding SL control inputs, and (iii) a control layer that executes these inputs on the SL hardware. We evaluated the framework with ten participants performing forward and lateral bending tasks. The results show a clear reduction in stance instability, demonstrating the framework's effectiveness in enhancing balance. This work paves the path towards safe and versatile human-SLs interactions. [This paper has been submitted for publication to IEEE.]
title Augmenting Human Balance with Generic Supernumerary Robotic Limbs
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15092