A soft exosuit for patients with stroke: Feasibility study with a mobile off-board actuation unit

In this paper, we present the first application of a soft exosuit to assist walking after stroke. The exosuit combines textile garments with cable driven actuators and is lighter and more compliant as compared to traditional rigid exoskeletons. By avoiding the use of rigid elements, exosuits offer greater comfort, facilitate donning/doffing, and do not impose kinematic restrictions on the wearer - all while retaining the ability to generate significant moments at target joints during walking. The stroke-specific exosuit adapted from previous exosuit designs provides unilateral assistance to the paretic limb during walking. This paper describes stroke-specific design considerations, the design of the textile components, the development of a research-focused, mobile off-board actuation unit capable of testing the exosuit in a variety of walking conditions, a real-time gait detection and control algorithm, and proof-of-principle data validating the use of the exosuit in the chronic stroke population. Ultimately, we demonstrate reliable tracking of poststroke gait, appropriate timing of assistive forces, and improvements in key gait metrics. These preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility and promise of exosuits for poststroke gait assistance and training. Future work will involve the creation of a portable, body-worn system based on the specifications obtained from such feasibility studies that will enable community-based rehabilitation.