TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental Evaluation of Energy Efficiency for a Soft Wearable Robotic Suit
AU - Jin, Shanhai
AU - Iwamoto, Noriyasu
AU - Hashimoto, Kazunobu
AU - Yamamoto, Motoji
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received January 28, 2016; revised June 14, 2016 and August 31, 2016; accepted September 7, 2016. Date of publication October 12, 2016; date of current version August 7, 2017. This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for the Adaptable & Seamless Technology Transfer program through Target-driven R&D (AS2415010K) from Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - This paper presents a new soft wearable robotic suit for energy-efficient walking in daily activities for elderly persons. The presented robotic suit provides a small yet effective assistive force for hip flexion through winding belts that include elastic elements. In addition, it does not restrict the range of movement in the lower limbs. Moreover, its structure is simple and lightweight, and thus wearers can easily take the device on and off by themselves. Experimental results on nine elderly subjects (age = 74.2±3.7 years) show that the robotic suit worn and powered on (PON) significantly reduced energy expenditure by an average of 5.9% compared with the condition of worn but powered off (POFF). Furthermore, compared with the POFF condition, there was a significant improvement in gait characteristics in the PON condition for all subjects.
AB - This paper presents a new soft wearable robotic suit for energy-efficient walking in daily activities for elderly persons. The presented robotic suit provides a small yet effective assistive force for hip flexion through winding belts that include elastic elements. In addition, it does not restrict the range of movement in the lower limbs. Moreover, its structure is simple and lightweight, and thus wearers can easily take the device on and off by themselves. Experimental results on nine elderly subjects (age = 74.2±3.7 years) show that the robotic suit worn and powered on (PON) significantly reduced energy expenditure by an average of 5.9% compared with the condition of worn but powered off (POFF). Furthermore, compared with the POFF condition, there was a significant improvement in gait characteristics in the PON condition for all subjects.
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U2 - 10.1109/TNSRE.2016.2613886
DO - 10.1109/TNSRE.2016.2613886
M3 - Article
C2 - 28113402
AN - SCOPUS:85029157577
SN - 1534-4320
VL - 25
SP - 1192
EP - 1201
JO - IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
JF - IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
IS - 8
M1 - 7589066
ER -