Knee exoskeletons for gait rehabilitation and human performance augmentation: A state-of-the-art

摘要

The number of patients with knee impairments caused by a stroke, spinal cord injury, post-polio, injury, osteoarthritis, or other related diseases is increasing worldwide. Robotic devices such as knee exoskeletons have been studied and adopted in gait rehabilitation, as they can provide effective gait training for the patients and release the physical therapists from the intensive labor required by the traditional physical therapy. In addition, knee exoskeletons can augment human performance in normal walking, loaded walking, and even running by enhancing the strength of the wearers' knee joints. A systematic review of knee exoskeletons is presented in this paper. The biomechanics of the human knee joint is firstly presented. Then, the design concepts of knee exoskeletons, including the actuators and sensors, are provided, followed by the introduction of the corresponding control strategies. Finally, the limitations of the available devices and the research and development directions in the field of knee exoskeletons are discussed, thus providing useful information to the researchers developing knee exoskeletons that are suitable for practical applications. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.