Varying negative work assistance at the ankle with a soft exosuit during loaded walking.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Only very recently, studies have shown that it is possible to reduce the metabolic rate of unloaded and loaded walking using robotic ankle exoskeletons. Some studies obtained this result by means of high positive work assistance while others combined negative and positive work assistance. There is no consensus about the isolated contribution of negative work assistance. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the effect of varying negative work assistance at the ankle joint while maintaining a fixed level of positive work assistance with a multi-articular soft exosuit.

Methods

We tested eight participants during walking at 1.5 ms^-1 with a 23-kg backpack. Participants wore a version of the exosuit that assisted plantarflexion via Bowden cab

SUBMITTER: Malcolm P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5485681 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature