Fig. 7

Maximal exertion stair-climbing results (top row) and usability assessment (bottom row). A Number of floors climbed during the maximal exertion experiment. B Average net metabolic power during the max exertion experiment. In general, participants had little change in energy cost but climbed more floors when walking with the device. ¹CP1 had a large reduction in net metabolic power without a change in floors travelled suggesting that he likely could have climbed higher. C Device don time. The final attempt time was significantly lower than both the first and second attempts. ²A caregiver assisted CP4 throughout the assessment. ³CP5 had spastic hemiplegia of the upper and lower-extremities and had difficulty handling the device, but had a nearly three-minute improvement with practice. D App setup time. Setup time decreased with practice to ~ 30 s. E App at each step. From left to right: (1) start screen checks to see if a device is in range, (2) optional donning instructions (link available in Additional file 4), (3) mass input, (4) torque sensor calibration, (5) screen for adjusting parameters and starting trial, (6) example of an active trial