Journal Article

Mechanics of walking and running up and downhill: A joint-level perspective to guide design of lower-limb exoskeletons

Farris, Dominic J., Mizrachi, Sarai, Nuckols, Richard W., Takahashi, Kota Z., Sawicki, Gregory S., Riemer, Raziel

2020

Overview

Lower-limb wearable robotic devices can improve clinical gait and reduce energetic demand in healthy populations. To help enable real-world use, we sought to examine how assistance should be applied in variable gait conditions and suggest an approach derived from knowledge of human locomotion mechanics to establish a 'roadmap' for wearable robot design. We characterized the changes in joint mechanics during walking and running across a range of incline/decline grades and then provide an analysis that informs the development of lower-limb exoskeletons capable of operating across a range of mechanical demands. We hypothesized that the distribution of limb-joint positive mechanical power would shift to the hip for incline walking and running and that the distribution of limb-joint negative mechanical power would shift to the knee for decline walking and running. Eight subjects (6M,2F) completed five walking (1.25 m s-1) trials at -8.53°, -5.71°, 0°, 5.71°, and 8.53° grade and five running (2.25 m s-1) trials at -5.71°, -2.86°, 0°, 2.86°, and 5.71° grade on a treadmill. We calculated time-varying joint moment and power output for the ankle, knee, and hip. For each gait, we examined how individual limb-joints contributed to total limb positive, negative and net power across grades. For both walking and running, changes in grade caused a redistribution of joint mechanical power generation and absorption. From level to incline walking, the ankle's contribution to limb positive power decreased from 44% on the level to 28% at 8.53° uphill grade (p < 0.0001) while the hip's contribution increased from 27% to 52% (p < 0.0001). In running, regardless of the surface gradient, the ankle was consistently the dominant source of lower-limb positive mechanical power (47-55%). In the context of our results, we outline three distinct use-modes that could be emphasized in future lower-limb exoskeleton designs 1) Energy injection: adding positive work into the gait cycle, 2) Energy extraction: removing negative work from the gait cycle, and 3) Energy transfer: extracting energy in one gait phase and then injecting it in another phase (i.e., regenerative braking).

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adult / Ankle / Ankle - physiology / Ankle Joint - physiology / Artificial legs / Biology and Life Sciences / Biomechanical Phenomena / Biomechanics / Braking / Clinical trials / Electric power generation / Energy / Energy transfer / Exoskeleton / Exoskeleton Device - trends / Exoskeletons / Female / Fitness equipment / Gait / Gait - physiology / Gait Analysis - methods / Health aspects / Hip / Hip - physiology / Hip Joint - physiology / Humans / Industrial engineering / Joints (anatomy) / Kinematics / Knee / Knee - physiology / Knee Joint - physiology / Laboratories / Locomotion / Lower Extremity - physiology / Male / Mechanical properties / Mechanics / Mechanics (physics) / Medicine and Health Sciences / Metabolism / Muscle, Skeletal - physiology / Physiological aspects / Physiological research / Physiology / Regenerative braking / Robotics / Robotics - instrumentation / Running / Running - physiology / Treadmills / Velocity / Walking / Walking - physiology / Wearable technology