State-of-the-art research in robotic hip exoskeletons: A general review

Bing Chen; Bin Zi; Ling Qin; Qiaosheng Pan

doi:10.1016/j.jot.2019.09.006

State-of-the-art research in robotic hip exoskeletons: A general review

J Orthop Translat. 2019 Oct 14:20:4-13. doi: 10.1016/j.jot.2019.09.006. eCollection 2020 Jan.

Authors

Bing Chen^{1

2

3}, Bin Zi¹, Ling Qin³, Qiaosheng Pan⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China.
² Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Mine Mechanical and Electrical Equipment, China University of Mining and Technology, China.
³ Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁴ School of Instrument Science and Opto-Electronics Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China.

Abstract

Ageing population is now a global challenge, where physical deterioration is the common feature in elderly people. In addition, the diseases, such as spinal cord injury, stroke, and injury, could cause a partial or total loss of the ability of human locomotion. Thus, assistance is necessary for them to perform safe activities of daily living. Robotic hip exoskeletons are able to support ambulatory functions in elderly people and provide rehabilitation for the patients with gait impairments. They can also augment human performance during normal walking, loaded walking, and manual handling of heavy-duty tasks by providing assistive force/torque. In this article, a systematic review of robotic hip exoskeletons is presented, where biomechanics of the human hip joint, pathological gait pattern, and common approaches to the design of robotic hip exoskeletons are described. Finally, limitations of the available robotic hip exoskeletons and their possible future directions are discussed, which could serve a useful reference for the engineers and researchers to develop robotic hip exoskeletons with practical and plausible applications in geriatric orthopaedics.

The translational potential of this article: The past decade has witnessed a remarkable progress in research and development of robotic hip exoskeletons. Our aim is to summarize recent developments of robotic hip exoskeletons for the engineers, clinician scientists and rehabilitation personnel to develop efficient robotic hip exoskeletons for practical and plausible applications.

Keywords: Ageing population; Gait rehabilitation; Hip dysfunction; Human performance augmentation; Robotic hip exoskeletons.

Publication types

Review