Muscle activation patterns during plantarflexion-assisted walking

随着技术进步和世界人口老龄化，预计下肢外骨骼将变得更加普遍。然而，在减少使用这些外骨骼行走所需的代谢成本方面仍然存在实质性障碍。因为行走在很大程度上是无意识的和自动化的活动，所以外骨骼的用户通常不会减少他们的肌肉活动以受益于所提供的辅助力，并且以适得其反的方式调整他们的步态。这项研究旨在通过对健康受试者的对照实验，提高我们对这些障碍的理解，以减少行走的代谢成本。理解这些外力的适应性对于设计能够有效地与用户人类用户互补和合作的外骨骼是很重要的。在第一年和第二年，开发了一个定制的踝关节外骨骼测试台，可以提供精确的跖屈辅助，以便执行上述实验。踝关节外骨骼测试台需要具有基于踝关节的角度以及其他输入来控制所施加的扭矩的功能。通过使致动器与外骨骼中的运动捕捉系统和传感器同步，所开发的外骨骼能够根据参与者的步态阶段为他们提供精确的定时辅助。此外，对人类外骨骼对外部辅助力的适应进行了综述。

As technology advances and world population ages, lower‐limb exoskeletons are expected to become more widespread. However, there are still substantial barriers in reducing the metabolic cost required for walking using these exoskeletons. Because walking is largely an unconscious and automated activity, users of exoskeletons often do not reduce their muscular activity to benefit from the assistive force provided and adjust their gait in ways that are counterproductive. This research aims to improve our understanding of these barriers to reduce the metabolic costs of walking through controlled experiments with healthy human subjects. It is important to understand the adaptations to these external forces to design exoskeletons that can effectively complement and cooperate with its user human user.In the first and second year, a custom ankle exoskeleton testbed that can provide precise plantarflexion assistance in order to perform the experiments stated above was developed. The ankle exoskeleton testbed needs to have the function to control the torque exerted based on the angle of the ankle as well as other inputs. By synchronising the actuators with a motion capture system and sensors in the exoskeleton, the developed exoskeleton is able to provide precisely timed assistance to the participants depending on their gait phase. Additionally, a review on human adaptations to external assistive forces in exoskeletons was conducted.