Figure 1From: Autonomous exoskeleton reduces metabolic cost of human walking during load carriageAutonomous leg exoskeleton. (A) The autonomous exoskeleton applies torque about the human ankle joint during walking, adding positive mechanical power to the wearer during the push-off portion of stance phase. During the swing phase, the device applies negligible forces on the wearer by allowing small amounts of slack into the cord. The mechanism consists of a winch actuator and fiberglass struts that directly apply a resultant torque about the ankle. (B) The winch actuator provides a torque on the ankle by winding the cord around the spool. As the cord is tightened, a force is applied to the struts on either side of the leg. The winch actuator’s brushless motor applies the torque to the ankle joint through a transmission that consists of the belt transmission stage in series with the geometric transmission stage comprising spool, idler roller and strut.Back to article page