Design and Biomechanical Evaluation of a Soft Lower Limb Exoskeleton for Elderly Assistance
Jin Y. Zheng Y. Li Z. Cai S. Bao G. Jamwal P.K. Hussain S.
2026Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics
2026#8Issue 1357 - 367 pp.
Age-related Motor Dysfunction will inevitably cause a reduction in physical movement capacity and life quality among the elderly, and raise the risk of falls. Lower robotic exoskeletons can offer assistance to the wearer, while most of them are rigid, bulky, and not suitable for daily use. Employing a pneumatic actuating mechanism, a novel soft lower limb robotic exoskeleton was developed in this paper. The pneumatic actuators were designed as airbags and assembled in a queue to form the main body of the soft exoskeleton. To correctly and timely control the exoskeleton to assist the user, a pair of plantar pressure sensors was embedded in the shoes to detect the moment of leg lifting and recognize the gait. The assistive and biomechanical performances of the exoskeleton were evaluated with healthy human subjects. Qualitative assessment of the developed exoskeleton was also conducted. Experimental results show that the developed soft exoskeleton can achieve an assistive efficiency of 5% ~10 % in different conditions, which is quite acceptable for assisting the daily activities of elderly people.
biomechanical evaluation , exoskeleton , muscle activity , Soft robot , walking assistance
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Zhejiang University of Technology, College of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou, 310023, China
Zhejiang University of Technology, ZJUT Yinhu Research Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Hangzhou, 311400, China
Nazarbayev University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
University of Canberra, School of Information Technology and Systems, Canberra, 2617, ACT, Australia
Zhejiang University of Technology
Zhejiang University of Technology
Nazarbayev University
University of Canberra
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