動作開始前に支援を確定するテキスタイルMMG・ひずみセンシングを用いたソフト膝エクソスーツ

原文アブストラクト

Soft wearable robots must commit to assistance around movement onset, when the available signals are ambiguous. Surface electromyography (sEMG) detects neuromuscular drive early but degrades under sweat and electrode shift, and kinematic sensors respond only once the limb moves. This letter presents a knitted textile interface that co-samples a three-channel mechanomyography (MMG) array and an anterior strain sensor on a single synchronous 500 Hz clock. Across five participants, MMG activation preceded strain-detected knee motion during sit-to-stand by per-channel medians of 322-344 ms. Sampled on the same clock, the sign of the strain slope resolved movement direction on 649 of 650 completed transitions with no training or per-participant calibration, raising four-class balanced accuracy from 90.3% to 95.6%. The fused signals drove a two-stage confirm-then-assist policy for a soft pneumatic knee. Across 240 trials in four participants, the onboard controller entered the assist state on 78 of 80 sit-to-stand trials and on none of the 80 isometric co-contractions. It also entered the assist state on 27 of 80 stand-to-sit trials and left it at the hold timeout, motivating an antagonistic flexor gauge to resolve this direction at onset. Co-sampling muscle acoustics with textile strain on one clock lets the inflation command be issued around movement onset.