This paper reports negative effects on runner’s motions which are supported by an exoskeleton attached to his/her lower limbs. A wearable assistive device has generally been developed to support motions of a wearer, while the device may disturb wearer’s motions due to physical features, including expanded his/her body outline and device’s weight. The expanded outline can exert adverse influence that limits range of motion of a wearer. In this paper, we focus on lower limb motions of a runner who puts an exoskeleton on his/her lower limbs to receive physical assistance. We simulated influence of medial parts of the exoskeleton on running through experiments with seven runners wearing one of three couples of rectangular-shaped light blocks (10 mm, 20 mm or 30 mm in thickness) on the medial sides of both thighs. These blocks increased step width but the 30 mm-thick blocks only increased net running heat rates by 6.05 bpm compared with that of running without blocks. This result shows that a wearable device which is equipped with components less than 20 mm-thick on each medial part of a runner’s thigh has little detrimental effects on running motions.

中文翻译：

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可穿戴设备的中间部分厚度会影响跑步运动

本文报道了对跑步者运动的负面影响，这是由附在他/她的下肢上的外骨骼所支持的。通常已经开发出可穿戴辅助设备来支持穿戴者的运动，而该设备可能由于物理特征（包括扩大的他/她的身体轮廓和设备的重量）而干扰穿戴者的运动。展开的轮廓可能会产生不利影响，从而限制佩戴者的运动范围。在本文中，我们着重于跑步者的下肢运动，该跑步者将外骨骼放在他/她的下肢上以获得身体上的帮助。我们通过两个大腿内侧分别穿上三对矩形灯块（厚度分别为10 mm，20 mm或30 mm的三对）之一的七个跑步者，模拟了外骨骼内侧部分对实验的影响。这些块增加了台阶宽度，但与无块运行相比，厚度为30 mm的块仅使净运行热量增加了6.05 bpm。该结果表明，在跑步者大腿内侧各部分的厚度小于20毫米的组件配备的可穿戴设备对跑步运动的有害影响很小。