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Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
Published in: Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research

Varying negative work assistance at the ankle with a soft exosuit during loaded walking

Authors: Philippe Malcolm, Sangjun Lee, Simona Crea, Christopher Siviy, Fabricio Saucedo, Ignacio Galiana, Fausto A. Panizzolo, Kenneth G. Holt, Conor J. Walsh

Published in: Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation | Issue 1/2017

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Abstract

Background

Only very recently, studies have shown that it is possible to reduce the metabolic rate of unloaded and loaded walking using robotic ankle exoskeletons. Some studies obtained this result by means of high positive work assistance while others combined negative and positive work assistance. There is no consensus about the isolated contribution of negative work assistance. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the effect of varying negative work assistance at the ankle joint while maintaining a fixed level of positive work assistance with a multi-articular soft exosuit.

Methods

We tested eight participants during walking at 1.5 ms−1 with a 23-kg backpack. Participants wore a version of the exosuit that assisted plantarflexion via Bowden cables tethered to an off-board actuation platform. In four active conditions we provided different rates of exosuit bilateral ankle negative work assistance ranging from 0.015 to 0.037 W kg−1 and a fixed rate of positive work assistance of 0.19 W kg−1.

Results

All active conditions significantly reduced metabolic rate by 11 to 15% compared to a reference condition, where the participants wore the exosuit but no assistance was provided. We found no significant effect of negative work assistance. However, there was a trend (p = .08) toward greater reduction in metabolic rate with increasing negative work assistance, which could be explained by observed reductions in biological ankle and hip joint power and moment.

Conclusions

The non-significant trend of increasing negative work assistance with increasing reductions in metabolic rate motivates the value in further studies on the relative effects of negative and positive work assistance. There may be benefit in varying negative work over a greater range or in isolation from positive work assistance.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
We calculated the ratio of change in metabolic rate per unit negative work rate assistance based on the dataset from Jackson and Collins [15] that was made available for download in [46]. From their dataset, we calculated the increase in metabolic cost in the condition where only negative work was provided by subtracting the metabolic rate in the powered-off condition from the condition in which only negative work was provided. Then, we calculated the rate of negative work that was provided in that condition by integrating the exoskeleton ankle joint power over time and dividing by stride time. Finally, we divided the increase in metabolic rate by the negative exoskeleton ankle work rate to obtain an individual ratio for every participant. The mean of this ratio is 8.2 J increase in metabolic rate per J negative work.
 
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Metadata
Title
Varying negative work assistance at the ankle with a soft exosuit during loaded walking
Authors
Philippe Malcolm
Sangjun Lee
Simona Crea
Christopher Siviy
Fabricio Saucedo
Ignacio Galiana
Fausto A. Panizzolo
Kenneth G. Holt
Conor J. Walsh
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 1743-0003
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-017-0267-5

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