Robotic sensory cueing during gait: a usability study with scenarios of daily living

Robotic sensory cues are increasingly being developed to provide gait assistance for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients. However, usability assessment of the devices in professional and home-based scenarios to foster the impact of this technology in patients' daily living is lacking. This study proposes a novel sensory cueing strategy using a wearable robotic device and investigates usability in multiple professional and home-based scenarios. Additionally, gait temporal metrics derived from the device are presented. By combining visual and somatosensory cues, the device provides closed-loop vibration at right foot’s toe-off gait event and projects open-loop laser lines on floor adjusted to self-selected step length, providing a user-personalized rhythmic temporal and spatial pace during gait. Evaluation among 15 healthy adults revealed generally positive perceptions of usability with excellent System Usability Scale scores and medium workload. Moreover, the gait temporal performance seems not compromised by the use of the device. These results support further research to assess the usability in PD population’s daily living.