Experimental and analytical methods for understanding user response to soft ankle exosuits

Dr. Krithika Swaminathan

In recent years, the field of exosystems (exoskeletons and exosuits) has demonstrated the ability to help users of varying mobility levels to walk more effectively by providing targeted assistance. Exosystems have seen promising responses in both healthy and clinical populations, but there remains much to learn about how these devices interact with a wearer and how to best use them to support and assess recovery. In this talk, I will discuss how we are repurposing these systems for gait recovery in people post-stroke by providing targeted resistance using principles from motor learning and biomechanics. I will then discuss efforts to move these systems into the real-world through estimation of key biomechanical outcome measures. Finally, I will present the development of analytical methods to enable more holistic understanding of how users respond to these complex systems.

 Krithika Swaminathan is a recent graduate of the Harvard Biodesign Lab at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Mechanical Engineering. Her research focuses on developing exosuit strategies inspired by biological mechanisms and neuromotor learning principles for ankle assistance and rehabilitation, with a focus in people post-stroke. Prior to her Ph.D., she earned her B.S. at MIT in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Applied Mathematics, in 2017.

https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/91364861759?pwd=T0lpNkNraDRiNzRnOGwyMHk4dnB3Zz09

Meeting ID: 913 6486 1759
Passcode: 650959