Event-Driven On-Sensor Locomotion Mode Recognition Using a Shank-Mounted IMU with Embedded Machine Learning for Exoskeleton Control

TL;DR

This work presents a wearable human activity recognition system that performs real-time inference directly inside a shank-mounted inertial measurement unit (IMU) to support low-latency control of a lower-limb exoskeleton to improve robustness in distinguishing level walking from stair ascent for torque-assist control.

Abstract

This work presents a wearable human activity recognition (HAR) system that performs real-time inference directly inside a shank-mounted inertial measurement unit (IMU) to support low-latency control of a lower-limb exoskeleton. Unlike conventional approaches that continuously stream raw inertial data to a microcontroller for classification, the proposed system executes activity recognition at the sensor level using the embedded Machine Learning Core (MLC) of the STMicroelectronics LSM6DSV16X IMU, allowing the host microcontroller to remain in a low-power state and read only the recognized activity label from IMU registers. While the system generalizes to multiple human activities, this paper focuses on three representative locomotion modes - stance, level walking, and stair ascent - using data collected from adult participants. A lightweight decision-tree model was configured and deployed for on-sensor execution using ST MEMS Studio, enabling continuous operation without custom machine learning code on the microcontroller. During operation, the IMU asserts an interrupt when motion or a new classification is detected; the microcontroller wakes, reads the MLC output registers, and forwards the inferred mode to the exoskeleton controller. This interrupt-driven, on-sensor inference architecture reduces computation and communication overhead while preserving battery energy and improving robustness in distinguishing level walking from stair ascent for torque-assist control.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: Shank-mounted SensorTile.box placement and coordinate definition used for data collection.
• Figure 2: Data-collection activities using a shank-mounted IMU: (a) stance, (b) level walking on a treadmill, and (c) stair ascent on a step climber.
• Figure 3: Tri-axial accelerometer signals (10 s) for stance, walking, and stair ascent. Columns: stance, walk, stairsUp. Rows: $a_x$, $a_y$, $a_z$. All subplots in each row share the same y-axis limits for direct comparison.
• Figure 4: Tri-axial gyroscope signals (10 s) for stance, walking, and stair ascent. Columns: stance, walk, stairsUp. Rows: $\omega_x$, $\omega_y$, $\omega_z$. All subplots in each row share the same y-axis limits for direct comparison.
• Figure 5: Experimental protocol snapshots for real-time evaluation: (a) stance, (b) level walking, and (c) stair ascent. The MLC configuration was pre-loaded on the IMU and the predicted class was read from the MLC output registers during the trial.