The knee joint performs a significant amount of positive or negative mechanical work during gradient walking, and targeted assistance during periods of high mechanical work could yield strong human augmentation benefits. This paper explores the biomechanical effects of providing knee extension assistance during the early stance phase of the gait cycle using a powered unilateral knee exoskeleton during gradient walking on able-bodied subjects. Twelve subjects walked on 15% gradient incline and decline surfaces with the exoskeleton providing knee extension assistance during the early stance phase of the gait cycle. For both incline and decline walking, the exoskeleton assistance reduced the muscle activation of the knee extensors on the assisted leg (p < 0.05). However, only approximately half the individuals responded to exoskeleton assistance positively by reducing their metabolic cost of walking for both incline and decline tasks. The results indicate that, unlike the individuals who did respond, the individuals who did not respond to the assistance may have penalized their metabolic cost by their biomechanical compensatory behaviors from the unassisted leg.

中文翻译：

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使用机器人膝关节矫形器在早期站立阶段进行的辅助对倾斜和下坡行走过程中的能量，肌肉活动和关节力学的影响。

膝关节在梯度行走过程中会执行大量的正负机械功，而在高机械功期间提供有针对性的帮助可能会产生强大的人体增强益处。本文探讨了在健壮受试者上进行梯度行走时，使用步态单侧膝盖外骨骼在步态周期的早期站立阶段提供膝盖伸展辅助的生物力学作用。12名受试者在步态周期的早期站立阶段中，在15％的倾斜和下坡表面上行走，外骨骼为膝盖伸展提供了帮助。对于倾斜和下坡行走，外骨骼辅助都会减少辅助腿上膝盖伸肌的肌肉激活（p <0.05）。然而，只有大约一半的人通过减少他们在倾斜和下坡任务时的步行代谢成本对外骨骼辅助做出了积极反应。结果表明，与做出响应的个人不同，未做出响应的个人可能会因其无助腿的生物力学补偿行为而对其代谢成本进行了惩罚。