Many of the current implementations of exoskeletons for the lower extremities are conceived to either augment the user’s load-carrying capabilities or reduce muscle activa-tion during walking. Comparatively little research has been conducted on enabling an exoskeleton to increase the agility of lower-limb movements. One obstacle in this regard is the inertia of the exoskele-ton’s mechanism, which tends to reduce the natural frequency of the human limbs. A control method is presented that produces an approximate compensation of the inertia of an exoskeleton’s mechanism. The con-troller was tested on a statically mounted, single-degree-offreedom (DOF) exoskeleton that assists knee flexion and extension. Test subjects performed multiple series of leg-swing movements in the context of a computer-based, sprint-like task. A large initial acceleration of the leg was needed for the subjects to track a virtual target on a computer screen. The uncompensated inertia of the exoskeleton mechanism slowed down the transient response of the subjects’ limb, in comparison with trials performed without the exoske-leton. The subsequent use of emulated inertia compensation on the exoskeleton allowed the subjects to improve their transient response for the same task.

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