Abstract
The present study has as main objective the design and development of a passive exoskeleton for the reduction of the metabolic costs during gait. The prototype was designed based on an existing concept, exploring specific issues related to ankle mobility, user’s ergonomics and structural customization. The evaluation of the exoskeleton performance was performed by 15 volunteers belonging to the Portuguese Army, based on the 6MWT. The exoskeleton was tested considering three force elements with different stiffnesses to assess the influence of this parameter in its performance. A qualitative analysis was also performed to assess the users’ perception during the trials. Results showed a reduction of the metabolic costs in 10 subjects, presenting an average value of 3%. Moreover, the results indicate that the selection of the force elements and the tuning of the spring-engaging mechanism plays a key role in the efficiency of the developed solution.
The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Army, though CINAMIL (ELITE/2019/CINAMIL) and FCT through IDMEC, under LAETA, project (UIDB/50022/2020).
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Acknowledgements
To all the volunteers that participated in this project and to the Lisbon Biomechanics Laboratory, for the support and availability in the collection of anthropometric data.
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Quinto, L.P., Pinheiro, P., Gonçalves, S.B., Roupa, I.F., Silva, M.T. (2022). Analysis of a Passive Ankle Exoskeleton for the Reduction of the Metabolic Costs During walking—A Preliminary Study. In: Moreno, J.C., Masood, J., Schneider, U., Maufroy, C., Pons, J.L. (eds) Wearable Robotics: Challenges and Trends. WeRob 2020. Biosystems & Biorobotics, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69547-7_87
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69547-7_87
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