Article

Elderly are confronted with reduced physical capabilities and increased metabolic
energy cost of walking. Exoskeletons that assist walking have the potential to
restore walking capacity by reducing the metabolic cost of walking. However, it
is unclear if current exoskeletons can reduce energy cost in elderly. Our goal
was to study the effect of an exoskeleton that assists plantarflexion during
push-off on the metabolic energy cost of walking in physically active and healthy
elderly. Seven elderly (age 69.3+/-3.5y) walked on treadmill (1.11ms2) with
normal shoes and with the exoskeleton both powered (with assistance) and
powered-off (without assistance). After 20min of habituation on a prior day and
5min on the test day, subjects were able to walk with the exoskeleton and
assistance of the exoskeleton resulted in a reduction in metabolic cost of 12%
versus walking with the exoskeleton powered-off. Walking with the exoskeleton was
perceived less fatiguing for the muscles compared to normal walking. Assistance
resulted in a statistically nonsignificant reduction in metabolic cost of 4%
versus walking with normal shoes, likely due to the penalty of wearing the
exoskeleton powered-off. Also, exoskeleton mechanical power was relatively low
compared to previously identified optimal assistance magnitude in young adults.
Future exoskeleton research should focus on further optimizing exoskeleton
assistance for specific populations and on considerate integration of
exoskeletons in rehabilitation or in daily life. As such, exoskeletons should
allow people to walk longer or faster than without assistance and could result in
an increase in physical activity and resulting health benefits.
CI - Copyright (c) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS