Unilateral Stiffness Modulation with a Robotic Hip Exoskeleton Elicits Adaptation During Gait

For many neurological or physical conditions, impairments of one or both of the legs can cause changes in gait that make it difficult for the patient to walk normally or at all. An example of this is Hemiparesis, an asymmetric impairment of the body often exhibited after a patient has suffered a stroke. Solutions to these asymmetric gait impairments often include devices such as exoskeletons, where the exoskeleton will assist the legs to hopefully partially or completely repair the patient's gait cycle.

​

During early 2022, we ran an experiment with the HRSL Hip Exoskeleton to analyze and interpret behavior of human subjects to a unilaterally applied stiffness about the right hip joint. Our results, which have been submitted as a conference paper to IROS 2022, showed that adaptation to the gait impedance was observed based on time-varying indicators with both hip range of motion and step length.