Tomc Matej, Zadravec Matjaž, Olenšek Andrej, Matjačić Zlatko
University Rehabilitation Institute Republic of Slovenia-Soča, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2025 Sep 21;10(9):635. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics10090635.
Despite rapid growth in the body of research on ankle exoskeletons, we have so far not seen their massive adoption in clinical rehabilitation. We foresee that an ankle exo best suited to rehabilitation use should possess the power generation capabilities of state-of-the-art active exos as well as the simplistic control and inherently suitable assistance timing seen in passive exos. In this paper we present and evaluate our attempt to create such a hybrid device: an Ankle Exoskeleton with Treadmill Actuation for Push-off Assistance. Using our device, we assisted a group of able-bodied individuals in generating ankle plantarflexion torque and power while measuring changes in biomechanics and electromyographic activity. Changes were mostly contained to the ankle joint, where a reduction in biological power and torque generation was observed in proportion to provided exo assistance. Assistance was comparable to state-of-the-art active exos in both timing and torque trajectory shape and well synchronized with the user's own biological efforts, despite using a very simplistic controller.
尽管有关脚踝外骨骼的研究数量迅速增长，但迄今为止，我们尚未看到它们在临床康复中得到广泛应用。我们预计，最适合康复使用的脚踝外骨骼应具备最先进的主动外骨骼的发电能力，以及被动外骨骼中所见的简单控制和固有的合适辅助时机。在本文中，我们展示并评估了我们创建这种混合设备的尝试：一种用于蹬离辅助的带有跑步机驱动的脚踝外骨骼。使用我们的设备，我们协助一组身体健全的个体产生脚踝跖屈扭矩和力量，同时测量生物力学和肌电图活动的变化。变化主要局限于踝关节，在该部位观察到生物力量和扭矩的产生与外骨骼提供的辅助成比例减少。尽管使用了非常简单的控制器，但辅助在时机和扭矩轨迹形状方面与最先进的主动外骨骼相当，并且与用户自身的生物努力良好同步。
