Randomized trial demonstrates enhanced gait variability in healthy adults using visual cues to maintain exoskeleton transparency.
Key Points
The aim is to evaluate if visualizing leg-level force perturbations enhances gait variability without compromising perceived exoskeleton transparency.
Thirty healthy adults participated in a randomized trial using a robotic exoskeleton and treadmill during a pelvis-centered task.
Participants trained under three conditions: Control with no perturbations, Perturbation with random multisine forces, and Perturbation + Visual with force visualization.
Step-width variability, task performance, motivation, and perceived transparency were assessed across different training phases and speed tests.
Both perturbation conditions significantly increased step-width variability compared to Control, with no differences between Perturbation and Perturbation + Visual.
Task performance improved from Baseline to Retention and Transfer across all conditions without significant differences among them.
Perceived transparency decreased only in Perturbation without visualization, remaining stable in Control and Perturbation + Visual.