ArticleJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2024
Optimizing exoskeleton assistance to improve walking speed and energy economy for older adults.
Article in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of an actuated ankle exoskeleton on walking stability in healthy adults: a controlled laboratory study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Trial
- Walking with a Passive Hip Exoskeleton and Wearables: Gait Characteristics and Metabolic Power in Senior Adults.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Enhancing sit-to-stand transitions and walking efficiency in older adults with a soft robotic suit.Nature communications · 2026Article
- An integrated multi-variable optimization approach to tailor ankle-foot orthosis stiffness to end-user needs.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- User preference-based human-in-the-loop tuning of exoskeleton assistance during walking.npj biomedical innovations · 2026Article
- Portable hip exoskeleton improves walking economy for stroke survivors.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Efficacy and biomechanical effects of the powered lower-limbs exoskeletons Keeogo in adults with neuromuscular diseases.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Research on Control Strategy of Lower Limb Exoskeleton Robots: A Review.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Lower limb exoskeletons for older adults: key assistance parameters and evaluation of ankle assistive strategies via musculoskeletal modelling.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Article
- Hip exoskeleton assistance with machine-learning-based state estimation improves gait kinematics of people with Parkinson's disease.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2026Article
- Continuous Lower Limb Biomechanics Prediction via Prior-Informed Lightweight Marker-GMformer.Cyborg and bionic systems (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Interaction-based rapid heuristic optimization of exoskeleton assistance during walking.Communications engineering · 2025Article
- Optimization of Actuator Stiffness and Actuation Timing of a Passive Ankle Exoskeleton: A Case Study Using a Musculoskeletal Modeling Approach.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Wearable technologies for assisted mobility in the real world.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Review
- Propulsion without penalty: greater soleus force with stiffer footwear does not necessarily increase estimated soleus metabolic cost across walking speeds.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2025Article
- Task-Agnostic Exoskeleton Torque Assistance Reduces Ankle Osteoarthritis Pain: A Pilot Study.Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference · 2025Article
- A Task-Agnostic Hip Exoskeleton for Osteoarthritis Pain Relief: Energetic Control Across Activities of Daily Life.IEEE ... International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics : [proceedings] · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWalking speed and energy economy tend to decline with age. Lower-limb exoskeletons have demonstrated potential to improve either measure, but primarily in studies conducted on healthy younger adults. Promising techniques like optimization of exoskeleton assistance have yet to be tested with older populations, while speed and energy consumption have yet to be simultaneously optimized for any population.
methodsWe investigated the effectiveness of human-in-the-loop optimization of ankle exoskeletons with older adults. Ten healthy adults > 65 years of age (5 females; mean age: 72 ± 3 yrs) participated in approximately 240 min of training and optimization with tethered ankle exoskeletons on a self-paced treadmill. Multi-objective human-in-the-loop optimization was used to identify assistive ankle plantarflexion torque patterns that simultaneously improved self-selected walking speed and metabolic rate. The effects of optimized exoskeleton assistance were evaluated in separate trials.
resultsOptimized exoskeleton assistance improved walking performance for older adults. Both objectives were simultaneously improved; self-selected walking speed increased by 8% (0.10 m/s; p = 0.001) and metabolic rate decreased by 19% (p = 0.007), resulting in a 25% decrease in energetic cost of transport (p = 8e-4) compared to walking with exoskeletons applying zero torque. Compared to younger participants in studies optimizing a single objective, our participants required lower exoskeleton torques, experienced smaller improvements in energy use, and required more time for motor adaptation.
conclusionsOur results confirm that exoskeleton assistance can improve walking performance for older adults and show that multiple objectives can be simultaneously addressed through human-in-the-loop optimization.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.