Ankle Pathologic Gait Assistance of a Hip Exoskeleton: Simulation and Experiment.

This letter presents a simulation framework for hip assistance in ankle pathologies. We first constructed the neuromuscular walking model, then designed the parameters for assistance torques for stance and swing legs. The parameter values were determined by carrying out dynamic optimizations that takes into account the human-exoskeleton interactive dynamics. The case studies involved abnormal gaits with foot drop, and foot drop and plantarflexion failure. We conducted clinical trials on Charcot–Marie–Tooth patients with various degree of severity using the assistance torque generated by the simulation. We evaluated the gait speed for different gait types with different assistance timings. Our results show that the assistance customization of various gait types is essential for maximizing the assistance effect.