Fig. 2

The average effect of exosuit assistance compared to baseline (without exosuit) walking across all poststroke participants (n = 19). Exosuit assistance improved walking speed, with lower baseline walking speeds resulting in higher speed increase, normalized flat foot landing to heel strike landing, increased propulsion power without reducing voluntary muscle activity during push-off, and improved ground clearance while reducing hip compensations. Bar graphs represent mean and standard error for walking with exosuit (red, EXO) and baseline walking without exosuit (black, noEXO) based on all participants (n = 19), except for the metabolic cost of transport (n = 17) and soleus muscle activity (n = 18). For some metrics, the non-paretic side is shown in a grey dashed bar for reference. The average exosuit effects across all participants are indicated in black (p < 0.05) or grey (p > 0.05). The Spearman r and p-value are reported for the correlation analysis on walking speed. With NP non-paretic side, P paretic side, SO Soleus muscle, GAS Gastrocnemius muscle, COM prop power the Center of Mass propulsive power, PF plantar flexion, CI confidence interval