Neural and physiological measures to classify user's intention and control exoskeletons for rehabilitation or assistance: The experience @NearLab

Robotic systems to restore, augment and support human capabilities hinder the natural interaction with the world. Different approaches based on physiological measurements such as brain activity, muscle contraction, kinematics, or eye movement, can be exploited to automatically and reliably detect the intention of the user to perform a movement. Once the intention of the user is detected or classified, it can trigger or control an exoskeleton supporting the target gesture. All these features together provide a personalized communication between the robot and the user making human-robot interaction natural and seamless. Thus, the acceptability and usability of the system is maximized. Several integrated robotic actuators driven by user’s intention are here described to demonstrate the potentiality of these technologies both for rehabilitation and assistance purposes.