Stroke is a standout amongst the most imperative reasons of incapacity on the planet. Due to partial or full paralysis, the majority of patients are compelled to rely upon parental figures and caregivers in residual life. With post-stroke rehabilitation, different types of assistive technologies have been proposed to offer developments to the influenced body parts of the incapacitated. In a large portion of these devices, the clients neither have control over the tasks nor can get feedback concerning the status of the exoskeleton. Additionally, there is no arrangement to detect user movements or accidental fall. The proposed framework tackles these issues utilizing a brain-controlled lower limb exoskeleton (BCLLE) in which the exoskeleton movements are controlled based on user intentions. An adaptive mechanism based on sensory feedback is integrated to reduce the system false rate. The BCLLE uses a flexible design which can be customized according to the degree of disability. The exoskeleton is modeled according to the human body anatomy, which makes it a perfect fit for the affected body part. The BCLLE system also automatically identifies the status of the paralyzed person and transmits information securely using Novel-T Symmetric Encryption Algorithm (NTSA) to caregivers in case of emergencies. The exoskeleton is fitted with motors which are controlled by the brain waves of the user with an electroencephalogram (EEG) headset. The EEG headset captures the human intentions based on the signals acquired from the brain. The brain-computer interface converts these signals into digital data and is interfaced with the motors via a microcontroller. The microcontroller controls the high torque motors connected to the exoskeleton's joints based on user intentions. Classification accuracy of more than 80% is obtained with our proposed method which is much higher compared with all existing solutions. INDEX TERMS Artificial skin, assistive technologies, brain-computer interface (BCI), electroencephalogram (EEG), brain-controlled exoskeleton, paralyzed, stroke.
Stroke is one of the prime reasons for paralysis throughout the world caused due to impaired nervous system and resulting in disability to move the affected body parts. Rehabilitation is the natural remedy for recovering from paralysis and enhancing the quality of life. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) controlled assistive technology is the new paradigm, providing assistance and rehabilitation for the paralysed. But, most of these devices are error prone and also hard to get continuous control because of the dynamic nature of the brain signals. Moreover, existing devices like exoskeletons brings additional burden on the patient and the caregivers and also results in mental fatigue and frustration. To solve these issues Artificial Muscle Intelligence with Deep Learning (AMIDL) system is proposed in this paper. AMIDL integrates user intentions with artificial muscle movements in an efficient way to improve the performance. Human thoughts captured using Electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors are transformed into body movements, by utilising microcontroller and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) device. EEG signals are subjected to pre-processing, feature extraction and classification, before being passed on to the affected body part. The received EEG signal is correlated with the recorded artificial muscle movements. If the captured EEG signal falls below the desired level, the affected body part will be stimulated by the recorded artificial muscle movements. The system also provides a feature for communicating human intentions as alert message to caregivers, in case of emergency situations. This is achieved by offline training of specific gesture and online gesture recognition algorithm. The recognised gesture is transformed into speech, thus enabling the paralysed to express their feelings to the relatives or friends. Experiments were carried out with the aid of healthy and paralysed subjects. The AMIDL system helped to reduce mental fatigue, miss-operation, frustration and provided continuous control. The thrust of lifting the exoskeleton is also reduced by using light weight wireless electrodes. The proposed system will be a great communication aid for paralysed to express their thoughts and feelings with dear and near ones, thereby enhancing the quality of life.
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