EVALUATION COMMITTEE

The Faculty Council has appointed the following adjudication committee to evaluate the thesis and the associated lecture: 

• Prof. J.H.P. (Han) Houdijk, University of Groningen, Nederland
• Dr. Cleveland Barnett, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
• Dr. Mark de Zee, HST, Aalborg University, Denmark (Chairman).

Moderator: Prof. Strahinja Dosen, Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University

ABSTRACT

Lower limb amputation is often a life-saving procedure and a life-changing event at the same time. Prostheses can be a critical contributor to this journey with the goal to gain back functionality, personal health, participation in society, and quality of life. An initial assessment of the patient determines the rehabilitation potential using performance-based outcome measures, clinical judgment, and self-reported measures that take place in a laboratory environment or clinical setting. This classification determines the type of prosthetic devices that are suitable for the patients. However, it has been demonstrated that the lab-based assessment does not correlate well with the performance in daily-life applications or with the user experience. Furthermore, clinical assessments do not consider measures of cognitive load, which is, however, a critical index because it has been shown that the use of a prosthetic device is associated with increased cognitive demands.

The aim of the present project was to bridge this gap by developing methods that would allow assessing the prosthesis outside of the lab. Specifically, the thesis compiled a collection of user needs expressed by lower limb prosthetic users, explored the use of the sensors embedded into mechatronic prostheses for clinical gait assessment, and tested the feasibility of using a mobile eye tracker to estimate cognitive load during walking with a prosthesis. Embedded sensor data were compared with the outcomes of conventional clinical gait analyses to show the potential of these sensors to record gait kinematics and kinetics. Eye tracking data was recorded to estimate visual attention (gazing) as well as cognitive activity (pupillometry) and was compared to the subjective perception of cognitive load while performing different motor tasks. The studies have demonstrated that sensors embedded into a prosthesis can be used to estimate relevant amputee gait parameters, while gaze data from a mobile eye tracker correlates with the perception of cognitive load. Importantly, these conclusions were obtained by conducting a comprehensive assessment that included walking in realistic conditions over slopes, stairs, and rough terrain, both in and outside the lab. The results of these studies pave the way toward an assessment outside of a laboratory, as well as the opportunity to provide a holistic assessment including estimates of cognitive load associated with prosthesis usage.