A device and a method that permit easy and accurate determination of a walking condition regardless of differences in foot landing points on soles or lengths of legs of a walker are provided. According to this device, a measuring device measures a parameter indicating a displacement speed or a displacement acceleration of a bottom end portion of one leg with respect to a bottom end portion of the other leg of the walker. A first storage device stores patterns of plots corresponding to parameters and walking conditions of the walker. A generating device generates plots defined in the determination space by parameters measured by the measuring device. A determining device determines walking conditions of the walker on the basis of the patterns of the plots stored and retained in conjunction with the walking conditions by the first storage device and the patterns of the plots generated by the generating device.

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A load bearing apparatus is presented in the form of a passive exoskeleton whereby a load may be placed on the passive exoskeleton and thereby weight of the load from the passive exoskeleton is transferred to a ground surface. The passive exoskeleton is made of a rigid body member for attaching proximate a portion of a user’s body; a sliding rod attached with the body member; a ground surface engage-able foot analog attached with the sliding rod; a rocker pivotally attached with the body member; a load pin attached with the sliding rod and operably attached with the rocker; and a bias block attached with the body member for engaging with the rocker. As a user walks, the bias block pivots the rocker to aid the load pin in transferring weight to the rocker and thereafter through the sliding rod to the foot analog and ground surface.

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A wearable action-assist device includes a biosignal detection unit detecting a biosignal from a wearer, an action-assist wearing tool having a drive source supplying a torque acting on the wearer around each joint of the wearer as an axis of rotation, a control unit controlling the drive source to generate the torque according to the detected biosignal, a drive torque estimation unit estimating a drive torque generated by the drive source, a joint-angle detection unit detecting an angular displacement of the joint, and a parameter identification unit identifying kinetics parameters concerned by substituting the estimated drive torque and the detected angular displacement into an equation of motion of an entire system including kinetics parameters intrinsic to the wearer. The control unit is configured to control the drive source according to a predetermined control method based on the equation of motion into which the identified parameters are substituted.

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A method for controlling movement using an active powered device including an actuator, joint position sensor, muscle stress sensor, and control system. The device provides primarily muscle support although it is capable of additionally providing joint support (hence the name “active muscle assistance device”). The device is designed for operation in several modes to provide either assistance or resistance to a muscle for the purpose of enhancing mobility, preventing injury, or building muscle strength. The device is designed to operate autonomously or coupled with other like device(s) to provide simultaneous assistance or resistance to multiple muscles.

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An apparatus and method for extracting energy from an internal combustion engine includes a chamber having a primary piston and a secondary piston with a combustion portion of the chamber situated adjacently between the primary piston and secondary piston. The secondary piston includes a substantially lesser mass than that of the primary piston. The chamber includes at least one fluid port for supplying fuel to the combustion portion and an out-take port for releasing combustive exhaust. The chamber includes a controller for controlling the combustion therein at selected cycles of the primary piston. The secondary piston is configured to draw a portion of energy from combustion controlled by the controller in the chamber. Such portion of energy is provided with a rapid response to an energy transferring portion interconnected to the secondary piston, which in turn, transfers and/or converts the energy for acting on a load or external application.

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