A Resistive Soft Robotic Exosuit for Dynamic Body Loading in Hypogravity

Prolonged exposure to reduced gravity in space leads to bone demineralization and muscle atrophy, which current countermeasures of simple body loading can partially address. To address this aetiology, a resistive hypogravity exosuit (R-HEXsuit) is proposed for dynamic body loading in low gravity. R-HEXsuit is a lightweight (1.4 kg) soft wearable exosuit that uses pneumatic artificial muscles to provide programmed bilateral resistance during walking, stimulating primary leg muscles. Tests on healthy subjects in Earth gravity and simulated Moon gravity reveal that the suit increases metabolic cost by 29.3% in Moon gravity, aligning it with Earth-like metabolic cost. Muscle activation in key knee joint muscles also increases, matching or exceeding Earth levels, without altering natural gait patterns. These results highlight the R-HEXsuit as a promising tool for replicating Earth-like physical demands during low-gravity missions, offering a potential solution for mitigating musculoskeletal degradation in space.