Improving Walking Assistance Efficiency in Real-World Scenarios with Soft Exosuits Using Locomotion Mode Detection

The use of portable and lightweight wearable assistive devices can improve wearer locomotion efficiency by reducing the metabolic cost of walking. To achieve this goal, assistive technologies must adapt to different locomotion modes to optimize walking assistance. In this work, we developed a novel control strategy for an underactuated soft exosuit featuring a single actuator to assist bilateral hip flexion, which utilized inertial measurement units (IMUs) to discriminate between three different locomotion modes: walking up/down stairs or on level ground. Walking assistance was adjusted in real-time to maximize the assistance provided to the user. In order to preliminary test the effectiveness of this control strategy, four healthy subjects performed a walking task with the exosuit disabled (Exo Off) and enabled (Exo On). Results showed that the kinematics-based IMU classification strategy achieved an overall accuracy exceeding 95% across the three-movement patterns. Subjects were able to save an average of 10.1% on walking energy expenditure with assistance from the wearable device. This work contributes to the development of compact, high-performance lower limb assistive technologies and their development in practical applications.