Design and Preliminary Evaluation of A Clutch-Spring Lower Limb Exoskeleton

This paper presents a novel quasi-passive lower limb exoskeleton that was designed to improve walking efficiency. The exoskeleton is able to recycle negative mechanical work from the knee and ankle joints, to assist the ankle joint in push-off when a burst of power is needed. Muscle activation experiments showed that the activity of hamstrings and gastrocnemius reduces in their active duration wearing the exoskeleton. The result indicates the energy transferring mechanism is beneficial to human walking.