Evaluation of mechanical effect for wire assist suit with force plates inside treadmill

Abstract

Assist suits have been developed in order to improve gait efficiency and reduce the burden on the body. In recent years, wire type assist suits have been developing. Generally, wire types help wearers to move by pulling the portion of their bodies with wire. Therefore, they can easily follow human movement and are enough light to wear for so long time. In this research, we evaluated the effect of wire type assist suits on lower limb joint by analyzing mechanical values for each joint when walking on the treadmill with wire type wearing. We calculated user’s lower limb joint angle, hip joint torque and step length in each condition(Case Ⅰ: Tension is changed, Case Ⅱ: Assisting section is changed). Results from the analysis showed increases in lower limb joint angles to particular direction and step lengths, decrease in burden of walking in a part of gait cycle.