Symposium topic
Active assistive technologies such as exoskeletons, orthoses, and prostheses are increasingly capable of providing assistance. However, their control is still largely generic, while users differ markedly in their gait, impairments, and needs. This symposium addresses how data-driven methods can personalize assistive device control. We follow a pipeline from offline gait phenotyping, in which clustering of movement patterns characterizes the support individuals may need, to online human-in-the-loop optimization, which adapts a device to the individual in real time, and finally to functional characterization of (dys)functional motor units post-stroke to restore volitional control. Together, the presentations connect population-level data, individual adaptation, and neural interfaces.
Underpinning science and theory
The symposium is scientifically grounded. Each presentation draws on empirical data from instrumented gait analysis and device-based experiments, analysed with established methods for clustering, human-in-the-loop optimization, and functional characterization of motor units post-stroke. The work builds on peer-reviewed literature in biomechanics and rehabilitation engineering, and findings are interpreted against validated outcome measures.
Relevance for the ISPO World Congress
Personalized control of prostheses, orthoses, and exoskeletons sits at the core of ISPO's mission to improve mobility and function. The symposium connects state-of-the-art engineering to clinical practice, showing how data-driven methods can tailor devices to individual users, directly relevant to the prescribers, clinicians, researchers, and technologists involved in assistive device prescription.
Perspectives
The presentations are complementary rather than overlapping: each tackles personalization at a different level: across a population, within an individual user, and at the level of neural control of muscle. Together they span the methodological range of the field and are demonstrated across multiple device types: exoskeletons, transtibial prostheses, and transfemoral prostheses.
Learning objectives
After attending this symposium, participants will be able to: (1) explain how gait phenotyping can identify functionally distinct user groups and guide device control; (2) describe how human-in-the-loop optimization adapts a device to an individual during use; (3) summarize how motor-unit characterization after stroke can support recovery of volitional ankle control; and (4) evaluate how combining population- and individual-level personalization can make device tuning faster and more robust.
