A Soft Wearable Robotic Suit for Ankle and Hip Assistance: a Preliminary Study.

As a walking assistive device, one of major goals should be reduce wearer's metabolic cost as much as possible. Toward this goal, this paper presents the preliminary study on a new soft wearable robotic suit for ankle and hip assistance for daily life activities. The presented robotic suit is lightweight, and it almost does not restrict the lower limb motion range.

Influence of a Soft Robotic Suit on Metabolic Cost in Long-Distance Level and Inclined Walking.

Metabolic cost during walking is positively linked to exercise intensity. For a walking assistive device, one of the major aims should be the maximization of wearers' metabolic benefits for different walking situations. Toward this goal, this paper experimentally evaluates the influence of an authors' soft robotic suit, which has been developed to assist hip flexion for energy-efficient walking of elderly persons in daily life activities, on metabolic cost reduction in the long-distance level and inclined walking.

Split-belt controllable treadmill with differential velocity-based fall stimulation and motion analysis.

Amid trends toward aging populations in developed nations, the number of people requiring nursing care has increased markedly. Slips and falls during ordinary daily activities are a common cause of fractured bones and muscle injury. Several studies have analyzed the movements produced by artificially generated slip and fall stimuli, but few have investigated these stimuli.

Experimental Evaluation of Energy Efficiency for a Soft Wearable Robotic Suit.

This paper presents a new soft wearable robotic suit for energy-efficient walking in daily activities for elderly persons. The presented robotic suit provides a small yet effective assistive force for hip flexion through winding belts that include elastic elements. In addition, it does not restrict the range of movement in the lower limbs.