Fig. 1

The autonomous multi-joint soft exosuit used in this study. a The apparel components and the hardware implementation. Bowden cable routings for multi-articular assistance and hip extension assistance are indicated by red and blue lines, respectively (thick lines: cable sheaths, thin lines: inner cables). Sensor placements for IMUs and loadcells are marked by green and yellow circles, respectively. b Two load paths specified by the textile architecture: multi-articular load path assisting with plantarflexion and hip flexion (highlighted in red) and hip extension load path assisting with hip extension (highlighted in blue). c A 3-D CAD model of the mobile actuation system consisting of four independent actuator units (highlighted in blue) and an exploded view of a multi-articular actuator unit