Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.
Science. 2021 May 28;372(6545):957-960. doi: 10.1126/science.aba9947.
Evolutionary pressures have led humans to walk in a highly efficient manner that conserves energy, making it difficult for exoskeletons to reduce the metabolic cost of walking. Despite the challenge, some exoskeletons have managed to lessen the metabolic expenditure of walking, either by adding or storing and returning energy. We show that the use of an exoskeleton that strategically removes kinetic energy during the swing period of the gait cycle reduces the metabolic cost of walking by 2.5 ± 0.8% for healthy male users while converting the removed energy into 0.25 ± 0.02 watts of electrical power. By comparing two loading profiles, we demonstrate that the timing and magnitude of energy removal are vital for successful metabolic cost reduction.
进化压力使人类以高效的方式行走，从而节省能量，这使得外骨骼很难降低行走的代谢成本。尽管面临挑战，但一些外骨骼已经设法减轻了行走的代谢支出，要么通过增加能量，要么通过储存和回收能量。我们表明，在步态周期的摆动阶段战略性地去除动能的外骨骼可使健康男性使用者的行走代谢成本降低 2.5±0.8%，同时将去除的能量转换为 0.25±0.02 瓦的电能。通过比较两种加载曲线，我们证明了能量去除的时间和幅度对于成功降低代谢成本至关重要。
