The ability to walk is important for independent living and when this capacity is affected by neurological injury, gait therapy is the traditional approach to re-train the nervous system. The importance of this problem is illustrated by the approximately 5.8 million stroke survivors alive in the US today and an estimated additional 700,000 strokes occurring each year, many requiring gait therapy. This manuscript presents the design and proof-of-concept testing for a novel device to deliver gait therapy. While robotic devices to train gait therapy exist, none of them take advantage of the concept of passive walkers and most of them impose the kinematics of unimpaired gait on impaired walkers. Yet research has found that proper neural input and stimulation is a critical factor for an efficacious therapy program. This novel device might afford a more ecological gait therapy including heel-strike.

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Studies have shown locomotor adaptation of the ankle to assistive torques, but the ability of the knee to adapt to assistive forces has not yet been explored. Understanding how humans modulate knee joint kinematics during gait could be valuable for designing assistive devices for stroke patients. In this study we examined how healthy subjects adapt to knee flexion torque assistance during gait. We hypothesized that 1) when given assistance subjects would adapt their locomotor patterns to walk with kinematics similar to baseline values and 2) removal of assistance following adaptation would result in substantially reduced knee flexion. Contrary to expectations, data from the five subjects show a weak adaptation and an increase in knee flexion kinematics after forces were removed. These results suggest that neuromuscular control of the knee joint during walking is not strongly modulated by feedforward mechanisms.

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A multi-fit orthotic structure including an attachment system for coupling the orthotic structure to a wide variety of subjects without requiring a custom fit. In one embodiment, active mobility assistance is provided via an orthotic system capable of integrating a linear actuator and linkage system to deliver torque to the lower leg of a subject to facilitate flexion and/or extension motion of the subject’s leg. The orthotic structure is attached to the subject using a textile suspension system which does not require the orthotic structure to interface directly in the knee region or at the lateral areas of the thigh and calf of the subject, thus providing an ideal fit for the widest possible range of subjects with the minimum number of required sizes.

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Background: How space suits affect the preferred walk-run transition is an open question with relevance to human biomechanics and planetary extravehicular acti-vity. Walking and running energetics differ; in reduced gravity (,0.5 g), running, unlike on Earth, uses less energy per distance than walking. Methodology/Principal Findings: The walk-run transition (denoted *) correlates with the Froude Number (Fr = v2/gL, velocity v, gravitational acceleration g, leg length L). Hu-man unsuited Fr* is relatively constant (,0.5) with gravity but increases substantially with decreasing gravity below ,0.4 g, rising to 0.9 in 1/6 g; space suits appear to lower Fr*. Because of pressure forces, space suits partially (1 g) or completely (lunar-g) support their own weight. We define the Apollo Number (Ap = Fr/M) as an expected invariant of locomotion under manipulations of M, the ratio of human-supported to total transported mass. We hypothesize that for lunar suited conditions Ap* but not Fr* will be near 0.9, because the Apollo Number captures the effect of space suit self-support. We used the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal and other sources to identify 38 gait events during lunar exploration for which we could determine gait type (walk/lope/run) and calculate Ap. We estimated the binary transition between walk/lope (0) and run (1), yielding Fr* (0.3660.11, mean695% CI) and Ap* (0.6860.20). Conclusions/Significance: The Apollo Number explains 60% of the difference between suited and unsuited Fr*, appears to capture in large part the effects of space suits on the walk-run transition, and provides several testable predictions for space suit locomotion and, of increasing relevance here on Earth, exoskeleton locomotion. The knowledge of how space suits affect gait transitions can be used to optimize space suits for use on the Moon and Mars.

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The present invention relates to a load bearing apparatus, and more particularly, to a passive exoskeleton whereby a load may be placed on the passive exoskeleton and thereby transfer weight of the load from the passive exoskeleton to a ground surface. The passive exoskeleton comprises a rigid body member for attaching proximate a portion of a user’s body, a sliding rod attached with the body member, and a ground surface engage-able foot analog attached with the sliding rod. When a user places a load on the body member, weight of the load from is transferred from the body member, through the sliding rod, and into the foot analog, causing the passive exoskeleton to support at least a portion of the load.

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