ArticleAnnals of biomedical engineering2025
Controlling Negative and Positive Power for Efficiency Enhancement and Muscle Strain Mitigation During Squatting with a Portable Knee Exoskeleton.
Article in Annals of biomedical engineering, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Biomechanics-Informed Mechatronics Design of Comfort-Centered Portable Hip Exoskeleton: Actuator, Wearable Interface, Controller.IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeWorkers face a notable risk of musculoskeletal injuries when performing squatting tasks. Knee exoskeletons offer a promising solution to mitigate muscle strain through squat assistance. However, existing studies on knee exoskeletons lack a comprehensive study that meets the multifaceted requirements of squatting assistance in terms of portability, efficiency, and muscle strain mitigation. Furthermore, another open research question pertains to the control strategy of squat assistance, which should be adaptable to various postures and cadences for different individuals. In particular, the effect of controlling negative power assistance during the squat-down phase is not studied.
methodsTo fill these two gaps, first, we develop a simple (computationally efficient and implementable in a microcontroller) and generalizable (for different postures, cadences, and individuals) torque controller for portable knee exoskeletons that delivers both negative and positive power. Our portable knee exoskeleton can benefit users by enhancing efficiency (reducing metabolic cost, heart rate, breathing ventilation), mitigating muscle strain (reducing EMG), and reducing perceived exertion (reducing Borg 6-20 scale) during squatting. Second, we study the effect of three levels of negative power assistance during the squat-down phase.
resultsThis study integrates comprehensive biomechanics and physiology analyses that evaluate our exoskeleton's effectiveness using four objective and two subjective metrics with a group of able-bodied subjects (n = 7). The exoskeleton reduced metabolic cost by 12.8%, heart rate by 13.8%, breathing ventilation by 8.9%, and reduced extensor muscle activity by 39.4-43.2%, flexor muscle activity by 18.9-20.3%, and Borg perceived exertion rate by 1.8 during squatting compare with not wearing the robot.
conclusionDifferent from the musculoskeletal model predictions that suggest increasing benefit with a higher level of negative power assistance, we find that the best performances were achieved with a moderate level of negative power assistance, followed by no assistance and then high assistance.
Indexed as
Identifiers
40097881What OpenQuestion holds
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.