Fig. 4

Assistance applied by the soft exosuit to the wearer. a Side view of the soft exosuit highlighting the load cells at the hip and at the ankle used to quantify the level of mechanical assistance provided by the soft exosuit. b Experimental setup highlighting the load cells inserted in the soft exosuit to assess contribution of the hip extension external force during the exosuit characterization experiment. c Peak force at the waist (light blue) and peak force at the ankle (blue) recorded during the exosuit characterization experiment. The waist peak force is the sum of the peak forces collected by the two load cells placed at the front of the thigh and the ankle peak force was collected directly by the load cell placed on the ankle. Data are relative to one representative participant. d Torque profiles at the ankle (blue) and at hip flexion (green) recorded during the testing sessions across all the participants involved in the study; estimated torque profile at the hip extension (light blue) calculated during the exosuit characterization experiment. The schematic drawing illustrates the assistance provided by the exosuit during the phases of the gait cycle. The multiarticular load path is displayed in blue and the monoarticular path is displayed in green. e Joint power (black) and biological joint power (dashed black) calculated for hip and ankle during the EXO_ON condition. The shaded area represents the power provided by the exosuit. Data are group means