The influence of elastic ankle exoskeletons on lower limb mechanical energetics during unexpected perturbations

Passive elastic ankle exoskeletons have been used to augment locomotor performance during walking, running and hopping. In this study, we aimed to determine how these passive devices influence lower limb joint and whole-body mechanical energetics to maintain stable upright hopping during rapid, unexpected perturbations. We recorded lower limb kinematics and kinetics while participants hopped with exoskeleton assistance (0, 76 and 91 Nm rad(−1)) on elevated platforms (15 and 20 cm) which were rapidly removed at an unknown time. Given that springs cannot generate nor dissipate energy, we hypothesized that passive ankle exoskeletons would reduce stability during an unexpected perturbation. Our results demonstrate that passive exoskeletons lead to a brief period of instability during unexpected perturbations — characterized by increased hop height. However, users rapidly stabilize via a distal-to-proximal redistribution of joint work such that the knee performs an increased energy dissipation role and stability is regained within one hop cycle. Together, these results demonstrate that despite the inability of elastic exoskeletons to directly dissipate mechanical energy, humans can still effectively dissipate the additional energy of a perturbation, regain stability and recover from a rapid unexpected vertical perturbation to maintain upright hopping.