Reducing Knee Joint Loads During Stance Phase With a Rigid-Soft Hybrid Exoskeleton

High mechanical loads generated during walking may accelerate the wear of the knee joint. General knee exoskeletons mainly reduce knee joint load by applying pure torque assistance to reduce the force required by knee extensor muscles. This study aims to further reduce the knee joint load during the early and middle stance phases through a gait intervention strategy that combines torque assistance and vertical force assistance. Comprehensive experiments were conducted to verify the gait intervention strategy in reducing the knee joint load. The results demonstrated that the strategy significantly reduced the maximum and mean knee joint force during the early and middle stance phases. Our studies indicated that the strategy may have the potential to reduce the knee joint load from multiple factors, including muscles, ligaments, and the ground reaction force.