Publications

Assistive and Rehabilitation
Robotics Lab

Domestics

고관절 외전 엑소슈트를 이용한 관상면에서의 직립 균형 안정성 향상
Author
김경모, 이상의, 김명희, 이기욱
Journal
대한기계학회 춘계학술대회 바이오공학부문
Year
2025
Maintaining upright static balance is challenging, particularly in the Frontal Plane due to limited Ankle and Knee joint degrees of freedom. We hypothesized that activating Hip Abduction Assistance (HAA) would generate an additional ground shear force, producing a Medial Ground Reaction Force (MGRF) opposing perturbation, thereby aiding balance recovery. This study investigates how a Hip Abduction Exosuit (HAE) (H-Medi Abd, HUROTICS Inc., South Korea) assists balance under external perturbations. The assistive effects were evaluated with five subjects undergoing static standing with lateral pelvic perturbations in a randomized crossover design (left/right, ON/OFF, repeated 12 times). The maximum perturbation magnitude was set to yield ~20% recovery success. A successful recovery was returning the contralateral foot without moving the stance foot or arms. Quantitative measures included Center of Pressure (COP) displacement, Peak COM Velocity, and MGRF. Activating the HAA significantly improved balance maintenance in all participants, boosting balance recovery rate to ~60%. With assistance, the COP moved more quickly and further in the lateral direction within 0.1 seconds, while Peak COM Velocity decreased by 17.7%. MGRF increased by ~125%. These findings demonstrate that HAE effectively assists balance recovery in the Frontal Plane, offering a solid basis for future research in enhancing human balance