Trait-level predictors of human performance outcomes in personnel engaged in stressful laboratory and field tasks.

Introduction: Personnel performance under stress hinges on various factors, including individual traits, training, context, mental and physiological states, and task demands. This study explored the link between the traits of military personnel and their performance outcomes in five domains: move, shoot, communicate, navigate, and sustain.

Methods: A total of 387 U.

Metabolic adaptation and related biomechanics in an ankle-based exoskeleton system during six sessions of steady state walking.

Ankle-based exoskeletons have demonstrated metabolic benefits during steady-state walking; however, variability exists in individual adaptation timelines necessary to achieve those benefits. This study assessed timelines for metabolic and gait-related adaptation while wearing an ankle-based exoskeleton while powered (EXOP) compared to unpowered (EXNP) and no device worn (NOEX). Metabolic (VO) and biomechanics data were collected while 14 participants walked on a treadmill at 1.

A comparison of Expert and Novice marksmanship performance and postural mechanics using inertial measurement units (IMUs) during dynamic live-fire shooting.

Marksmanship is a foundational Soldier skill required for all active-duty military personnel regardless of duty position. This research compared shooting performance and underlying postural mechanics of Expert and Novice marksmen during a dynamic, live-fire shooting task. Eighteen military personnel volunteered to participate in this study (n = 9 Experts and n = 9 Novices).

The Effects of Incline Level on Optimized Lower-Limb Exoskeleton Assistance: A Case Series.

For exoskeletons to be successful in real-world settings, they will need to be effective across a variety of terrains, including on inclines. While some single-joint exoskeletons have assisted incline walking, recent successes in level-ground assistance suggest that greater improvements may be possible by optimizing assistance of the whole leg. To understand how exoskeleton assistance should change with incline, we used human-in-the-loop optimization to find whole-leg exoskeleton assistance torques that minimized metabolic cost on a range of grades.

Optimized hip-knee-ankle exoskeleton assistance reduces the metabolic cost of walking with worn loads.

Background: Load carriage is common in a wide range of professions, but prolonged load carriage is associated with increased fatigue and overuse injuries. Exoskeletons could improve the quality of life of these professionals by reducing metabolic cost to combat fatigue and reducing muscle activity to prevent injuries. Current exoskeletons have reduced the metabolic cost of loaded walking by up to 22% relative to walking in the device with no assistance when assisting one or two joints.

Consensus paper on testing and evaluation of military exoskeletons for the dismounted combatant.

Enhancing the capabilities of the dismounted combatant has been an enduring goal of international military research communities. Emerging developments in exoskeleton technology offers the potential to augment the dismounted combatant's capabilities. However, the ability to determine the value proposition of an exoskeleton in a military context is difficult due to the variety of methods and metrics used to evaluate previous devices.

Soldier-relevant body borne loads increase knee joint contact force during a run-to-stop maneuver.

The purpose of this study was to understand the effects of load carriage on human performance, specifically during a run-to-stop (RTS) task. Using OpenSim analysis tools, knee joint contact force, grounds reaction force, leg stiffness and lower extremity joint angles and moments were determined for nine male military personnel performing a RTS under three load configurations (light, ~6kg, medium, ~20kg, and heavy, ~40kg). Subject-based means for each biomechanical variable were submitted to repeated measures ANOVA to test the effects of load.