A Trade-Off between Complexity and Interaction Quality for Upper Limb Exoskeleton Interfaces

Exoskeletons are among the most promising devices dedicated to assisting human movement during reeducation protocols and preventing musculoskeletal disorders at work. However, their potential is currently limited, partially because of a fundamental contradiction impacting their design. Indeed, increasing the interaction quality often requires the inclusion of passive degrees of freedom in the design of human-exoskeleton interfaces, which increases the exoskeleton’s inertia and complexity. Thus, its control also becomes more complex, and unwanted interaction efforts can become important. In the present paper, we investigate the influence of two passive rotations in the forearm interface on sagittal plane reaching movements while keeping the arm interface unchanged (i.e., without passive degrees of freedom). Such a proposal represents a possible compromise between conflicting design constraints. The in-depth investigations carried out here in terms of interaction efforts, kinematics, electromyographic signals, and subjective feedback of participants all underscored the benefits of such a design. Therefore, the proposed compromise appears to be suitable for rehabilitation sessions, specific tasks at work, and future investigations into human movement using exoskeletons.