Mobile Unilateral Hip Flexion Exosuit Assistance for Overground Walking in Individuals Post-Stroke: A Case Series

Stroke is a leading medical issue that can impact the person’s ability to walk effectively. There is limited research into the design and biomechanical response for exosuits that assist more proximal joints such as the hip. For this case series, three subjects with chronic stroke participated in a single-session study to evaluate hip flexion exosuit assistance in overground walking. We iteratively tuned the unilateral hip flexion assistance profiles in overground gait. Compared to the initial unpowered baseline, walking speed at the end of tuning and with the device powered increased for 2 of 3 individuals and on average by 0.16 m s\(^{-1}\). We then compared powered versus unpowered overground walking during a 5 min evaluation period. Circumduction was reduced by 9 \(\pm 1\) mm and cost of transport was reduced by 8.6 \(\pm 1.7\)% for the 3 participants.