Lower-limb exoskeletons have received considerable attention because of their effectiveness in walking assistance and rehabilitation for paraplegic patients. Excessive foot–ground impacts during walking make patients uncomfortable and even lead to injury. In this paper, we propose an optimized knee trajectory modulation (OKTM) for foot–ground impact reduction. The OKTM can reduce the peak of ground reaction force (PGRF) by knee-joint trajectory modulation based on a parameters-optimizing spring-damping system. In addition, a hip trajectory modulation (HTM) is presented to compensate for torso pitch deflections due to the OKTM. Unlike traditional mechanical-device-based methods, the proposed OKTM and HTM require no bulky mechanical structures, and can adaptively adjust parameters to adapt to different impacts. We demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed approach in both simulations and experiments for engineering verifications. Results show that the approach can effectively reduce PGRF.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.