Reducing the Energy Cost of Human Running Using an Unpowered Exoskeleton

Reducing the Energy Cost of Human Running Using an Unpowered Exoskeleton

Reducing the Energy Cost of Human Running Using an Unpowered Exoskeleton 270 480 Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering (TNSRE)

  

 
In this paper, we present a new perspective to design an unpowered exoskeleton for metabolic rate reduction in running. According to our studies on human biomechanics, it was observed that having a torsional spring which applies torque as a linear function of the difference between two hips angles (d-angle), compared to a local spring which applies torque as a function of hip angle (h-angle) provides a better condition for hip moment compensation, and consequently metabolic rate reduction. Accordingly, a new type of unpowered exoskeleton device for realization of this idea was designed, and a prototype of this exoskeleton was constructed. This exoskeleton was tested on ten healthy active subjects for running at 2.5 m s–1. In this experiment, 8.0 ± 1.5% (mean±s.e.m.) metabolic rate reduction (compared to the no-exoskeleton case) was achieved.

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