Whether supporting patients recovering from a stroke, athletes looking to boost speed, or military personnel or industrial workers carrying heavy loads, wearable robotics hold promise to enhance, assist, or rehabilitate a user’s movements for a variety of purposes.

Though these devices are widely studied in research labs, their use in the real world is still quite limited, and their effectiveness varies widely across users. According to Banu Abdikadirova, a PhD student in mechanical and industrial engineering at UMass Amherst, this is because when people strap on a robotic exoskeleton, their bodies aren’t passively manipulated like a puppet; rather, they work with the device, learning from and adapting to the effects of its assistance over time. Yet, much is still unknown about exactly how humans interact with robotic exoskeletons in this way. Abdikadirova’s research in the Human Robot Systems Lab at UMass aims to change that. “I think in the long run, our research can enable these devices to be deployed in the real world,” she says.

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Abdikadirova’s work has been recognized at UMass Amherst with a Robert and Deanna Hagerty Scholarship and a Dean's Fellowship from the Riccio College of Engineering, as well as a Joseph E. Motherway Fellowship for excellence in mechanical design from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She was named a Groundbreaking Graduate Student in recognition of her important contributions to wearable robotics research. Abdikadirova has also received external recognition, including from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Robotics and Automation Society, which gave her a travel award to present her work at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in 2023.

“Our lab would not be where it is today without Banu,” says Abdikadirova’s advisor, Meghan Huber, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering. “I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with and learned from her over these past several years. She came to UMass Amherst with a strong engineering foundation, and watching her continue to grow both as a researcher and leader has been truly remarkable. I can't wait to see what she does next.”
 

A Passion for Wearable Robotics

Abdikadirova studied mechanical engineering as an undergraduate at Nazarbayev University in her native country, Kazakhstan. In 2018, she attended the International Symposium on Wearable Robotics (WeRob) in Pisa, Italy, where hearing from top researchers in the field and seeing the devices in action ignited her passion for wearable robotics. She was inspired to pursue a PhD in this field and applied to several universities in the United States, choosing UMass Amherst’s Riccio College of Engineering because she was excited by the research being done in Huber’s lab. 

In the Human Robot Systems Lab, Abdikadirova has been instrumental in developing wearable robotic systems and studying how they can be used to enhance gait and aid in rehabilitation.

She played a key role in the design and development of a custom, portable robotic hip exoskeleton, which serves as a central platform for her research. Her ongoing work focuses on understanding how humans learn to adapt their walking patterns over time to maximize the benefits of robotic assistance. In particular, using neuroimaging, she studies long-term learning processes that unfold across multiple days of interacting with the hip exoskeleton. 

Abdikadirova has also led studies exploring how this hip exoskeleton can be used to reduce gait asymmetry often experienced by stroke survivors. 

“These patients tend to put more weight on one side and take asymmetric steps,” she explains. “Current rehabilitation methods try to force patients to fix this imbalance and walk ‘correctly,’ but it’s not very efficient.” 

In contrast, the hip exoskeleton they’ve developed in the lab applies uneven forces about the hip joints—exaggerating walking asymmetry—which encourages the user’s nervous system to adapt over time to restore symmetry. Abdikadirova’s experiments with healthy (neurologically intact) participants have demonstrated that this approach is successful in triggering neural adaptation, suggesting its potential to help stroke survivors. 

Abdikadirova also contributed to the design of an adjustable surface stiffness treadmill and adjustable compliance footwear technology to assist gait rehabilitation in stroke survivors. Like the hip exoskeleton, these technologies are designed to exaggerate asymmetric weight bearing during walking, in service of ultimately training the user to bear weight more evenly across both legs. 

During her time at UMass Amherst, Abdikadirova has published and presented her research nationally and internationally in leading journals and top-tier robotics and biomechanics venues. Building on her contributions, the team is now partnering with UMass Memorial Health to explore the real-world and clinical potential of these technologies.

Abdikadirova has found the robotics research environment at UMass to be both supportive and highly collaborative, with researchers working together across disciplines—including mechanical and industrial engineering, kinesiology, and computer science—to solve complex problems. “This offers a lot of different perspectives and resources for productive research,” she says. 

After graduating, Abdikadirova plans to continue working in wearable robotics, and hopes to find a postdoctoral position in the field.

Meet more Groundbreaking Graduate Students.