Mechanics of walking and running up and downhill: A joint-level perspective to guide design of lower-limb exoskeletons.

ABSTRACT: Lower-limb wearable robotic devices can improve clinical gait and reduce energetic demand in healthy populations. To help enable real-world use, we sought to examine how assistance should be applied in variable gait conditions and suggest an approach derived from knowledge of human locomotion mechanics to establish a 'roadmap' for wearable robot design. We characterized the changes in joint mechanics during walking and running across a range of incline/decline grades and then provide an analysis that informs the development of lower-limb exoskeletons capable of operating across a range of mechanical demands. We hypothesized that the distribution of limb-joint positive mechanical power would shift to the hip for incline walking and running and that the distribution of limb-joint negative me

SUBMITTER: Nuckols RW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7454943 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature