Krithika Swaminathan

Journal Article Nature communications · April 2025 Inertial measurement units offer a cost-effective, portable alternative to lab-based motion capture systems. However, measuring joint angles and movement trajectories with inertial measurement units is challenging due to signal drift errors caused by biase ... Full text Cite

Multi-Modal Sensing for Propulsion Estimation in People Post-Stroke Across Speeds.

Journal Article IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society · January 2025 Gait rehabilitation is critical for regaining locomotor independence after neuromotor injuries like stroke. Rehabilitation literature indicates the need for such therapy to continue beyond the clinic in order to maintain motor function and support recovery ... Full text Cite

Estimating braking and propulsion forces during overground running in and out of the lab.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2025 Accurately estimating kinetic metrics, such as braking and propulsion forces, in real-world running environments enhances our understanding of performance, fatigue, and injury. Wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) offer a potential solution to estima ... Full text Cite

Estimation of joint torque in dynamic activities using wearable A-mode ultrasound.

Journal Article Nature communications · July 2024 The human body constantly experiences mechanical loading. However, quantifying internal loads within the musculoskeletal system remains challenging, especially during unconstrained dynamic activities. Conventional measures are constrained to laboratory set ... Full text Cite

Propulsion Modulation Methods in People Post-Stroke during Resistive Ankle Exosuit Use

Conference Proceedings of the IEEE Ras and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics · January 1, 2024 Locomotion requires careful coordination across the various joints and muscles of the body, which can be disrupted after neuromotor injuries such as stroke. People post-stroke often have weakness in their paretic, or more impaired, ankle plantarflexors and ... Full text Cite

Individualized Learning-Based Ground Reaction Force Estimation in People Post-Stroke Using Pressure Insoles.

Conference IEEE ... International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics : [proceedings] · September 2023 Stroke is a leading cause of gait disability that leads to a loss of independence and overall quality of life. The field of clinical biomechanics aims to study how best to provide rehabilitation given an individual's impairments. However, there remains a d ... Full text Cite

Artificial intelligence meets medical robotics.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · July 2023 Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in medical robots are bringing a new era to medicine. Advanced medical robots can perform diagnostic and surgical procedures, aid rehabilitation, and provide symbiotic prosthetics to replace limbs. The technology u ... Full text Cite

Ankle-targeted exosuit resistance increases paretic propulsion in people post-stroke.

Journal Article Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · June 2023 BackgroundIndividualized, targeted, and intense training is the hallmark of successful gait rehabilitation in people post-stroke. Specifically, increasing use of the impaired ankle to increase propulsion during the stance phase of gait has been li ... Full text Cite

Opportunities and challenges in the development of exoskeletons for locomotor assistance.

Journal Article Nature biomedical engineering · April 2023 Exoskeletons can augment the performance of unimpaired users and restore movement in individuals with gait impairments. Knowledge of how users interact with wearable devices and of the physiology of locomotion have informed the design of rigid and soft exo ... Full text Cite

A continuous statistical-geometric framework for normative and impaired gaits.

Journal Article Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · November 2022 A quantitative analysis of human gait patterns in space-time provides an opportunity to observe variability within and across individuals of varying motor capabilities. Impaired gait significantly affects independence and quality of life, and thus a large ... Full text Cite

Modulation of Achilles tendon force with load carriage and exosuit assistance.

Journal Article Science robotics · October 2022 Exosuits have the potential to assist locomotion in both healthy and pathological populations, but the effect of exosuit assistance on the underlying muscle-tendon tissue loading is not yet understood. In this study, we used shear wave tensiometers to char ... Full text Cite

Ultrasound Imaging of Plantarflexor Muscles During Robotic Ankle Assisted Walking: Effects on Muscle Tendon Dynamics and Application Towards Improved Exoskeleton and Exosuit Control

Chapter · January 1, 2022 Ankle exosuits/exoskeletons can improve gait but the assistance needs to be tuned to the individual. We suspect that ankle assistance can affect underlying muscle-tendon dynamics and should be accounted for in the control design. We highlight two complemen ... Full text Cite

Ankle resistance with a unilateral soft exosuit increases plantarflexor effort during pushoff in unimpaired individuals.

Journal Article Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · December 2021 BackgroundAnkle-targeting resistance training for improving plantarflexion function during walking increases rehabilitation intensity, an important factor for motor recovery after stroke. However, understanding of the effects of resisting plantarf ... Full text Cite

Individualization of exosuit assistance based on measured muscle dynamics during versatile walking.

Journal Article Science robotics · November 2021 Variability in human walking depends on individual physiology, environment, and walking task. Consequently, in the field of wearable robotics, there is a clear need for customizing assistance to the user and task. Here, we developed a muscle-based assistan ... Full text Cite

Automated detection of soleus concentric contraction in variable gait conditions for improved exosuit control

Conference Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation · May 1, 2020 Exosuits can reduce metabolic demand and improve gait. Controllers explicitly derived from biological mechanisms that reflect the user's joint or muscle dynamics should in theory allow for individualized assistance and enable adaptation to changing gait. W ... Full text Cite

Biomechanics underlying subject-dependent variability in motor adaptation to soft exosuit assistance

Chapter · January 1, 2019 Exosuits and exoskeletons have been shown to reduce the metabolic cost of walking by over 20%. While many studies have shown promising group-averaged data, there has often been high variability in individual response to assistance even when using standardi ... Full text Cite

Are Individual Differences in Sleep and Circadian Timing Amplified by Use of Artificial Light Sources?

Journal Article Journal of biological rhythms · April 2017 Within the human population, there is large interindividual variability in the timing of sleep and circadian rhythms. This variability has been attributed to individual differences in sleep physiology, circadian physiology, and/or light exposure. Recent ex ... Full text Cite

MIT-Skywalker: A Novel Gait Neurorehabilitation Robot for Stroke and Cerebral Palsy.

Journal Article IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society · October 2016 The MIT-Skywalker is a novel robotic device developed for the rehabilitation or habilitation of gait and balance after a neurological injury. It represents an embodiment of the concept exhibited by passive walkers for rehabilitation training. Its novelty e ... Full text Cite

Analysis of the anklebot training as a method for reducing lower-limb paretic impairment a case study in electromyography

Conference IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics · September 28, 2015 This paper describes the results of a month-long case study of a stroke patient training with the anklebot conducted at the MIT Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics. The study provides promising evidence for reducing paretic impairment using the anklebot in ... Full text Cite