Our goal is to enhance the quality of life of patients with hemiplegia by means of an active motion support system that assists the impaired motion such as to make it as close as possible to the motion of an able bodied person. We have developed the Robot Suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) to actively support and enhance the human motor functions. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to propose the required control method to support voluntarily motion using a trigger based on patient's bioelectrical signal. Clinical trials were conducted in order to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed control method. The first stage of the trials, described in this paper, involved the participation of one hemiplegic patient who is not able to bend his right knee. As a result, the motion support provided by the HAL moved the paralyzed knee joint according to his intention and improved the range of the subject's knee flexion. The first evaluation of the control method with one subject showed promising results for future trials to explore the effectiveness for a wide range of types of hemiplegia.

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The development of full body, wearable exoskeletons has been limited by the constraints of weight and available power. Because of this it has not been possible to create one that augments all DoF of its human wearer with enough power to assist, e.g., nurses and other workers. To achieve more usefulness despite the limitations, a practical design approach that considers the motions and needs of the wearer is an appropriate tool to reveal new opportunities. This approach was used to find solutions for a fully supported 3DoF exospine, supported shoulder girdle motion, and other challenges that have so far received little or no attention. No extra actuators are required, thus adding a minimum to weight and power. The improvements found using this practical approach suggest related fields like rehabilitation could profit as well.