A hinge-free, non-restrictive, lightweight tethered exosuit for knee extension assistance during walking.

Abstract

In individuals with motor impairments such as those post-stroke or with cerebral palsy, the function of the knee extensors may be affected during walking, resulting in decreased mobility. We have designed a lightweight, hinge-free wearable robot combining soft textile exosuit components with integrated rigid components, which assists knee extension when needed but is otherwise highly transparent to the wearer. The exosuit can apply a wide range of assistance profiles using a flexible multi-point reference trajectory generator. Additionally, we implemented a controller safety limit to address the risk of hyperextension stemming from the hinge-free design. The exosuit was evaluated on six healthy participants walking uphill and downhill on a treadmill at a 10° slope with a set of joint power-inspired assistance profiles. A comparison of sagittal plane joint angles between no exosuit and exosuit unpowered conditions validated the device transparency. With positive power assistance, we observed reduction in average positive knee biological power during uphill walking (left: 17.5 ± 3.21%, p = 0.005; right: 23.2 ± 3.54%, p = 0.008). These initial findings show promise for the assistive capability of the device and its potential to improve the quality of gait and increase mobility in clinical populations.