Wearable Hip Exoskeleton Design to Enhance Balance Capacity in Perturbing Conditions

Challenging gait, particularly under destabilized or perturbing conditions, adversely impact elderly individuals and those with neurological impairments, increasing their risk of falls and consequent injuries. This study presents a novel powered hip exoskeleton designed to enhance one’s postural stability to unexpected perturbations through autonomous hip modulation based on force feedback from foot-ground interactions. The exoskeleton includes multi-planar actuators for controlled hip flexion/extension and abduction/adduction, systematically responding to dynamic loading changes based on bipedal plantar pressure data and center of pressure (CoP) trajectories. A balance-assisted controller, inspired by human adaptive control strategies, is integrated into the exoskeleton to provide customized support, enhancing posture control under sudden translational perturbation conditions. Preliminary experiments involving a healthy subject wearing the designed hip exoskeleton demonstrated improved balance responses to unexpected perturbations, as evidenced by a significant 24% reduction in the muscle activation of the gluteus medius (GM).