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Hurotics' research on a soft exosuit that controls multiple joints at the same time has been published in IEEE TBME, a leading international journal in biomedical engineering.

 

The key point of this study is that, rather than assisting the ankle alone, it controls the hip and ankle together to improve foot-drop gait more comprehensively.

 

In experiments under conditions simulating foot drop, multi-joint assistance significantly improved minimum toe clearance and the foot's initial contact angle with the ground, and clear improvements were also seen in hip and ankle movement during the late swing phase.

 

Not solving an ankle problem with the ankle alone: Hurotics keeps advancing H-Medi's technology by looking at human walking as a whole.

 

Look forward to the changes this technology will bring to real rehabilitation settings!

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Hurotics Demonstrates Improved Foot-Drop Gait with Simultaneous Multi-Joint Control; Paper Published in IEEE TBME

- Results of a multi-joint-control soft exosuit study published in IEEE TBME, a leading journal in biomedical engineering

- Overcomes the limits of existing devices that assist only the ankle: simultaneous hip and ankle control markedly improves gait

- Significant improvements confirmed in minimum toe clearance and initial contact angle under foot-drop conditions

- Positioned as a premium solution for stroke and severe neurological rehabilitation that also addresses proximal compensation

Hurotics' simultaneous multi-joint control walking experiment. The soft exosuit delivers tailored assistance to the hip (proximal) and ankle (distal) at the same time, comprehensively improving the stability of foot-drop gait.

Hurotics Inc. (CEO Giuk Lee), a company specializing in wearable robots, announced that its study of a soft exosuit with simultaneous multi-joint (hip and ankle) control for improving foot-drop gait has been published in IEEE TBME (Transactions on Biomedical Engineering), a prominent international journal in biomedical engineering. The study provides academic evidence of the competitive advantage of Hurotics' multi-joint control technology over existing single-joint assistive devices.

 

In the study, a 2 kg load was attached to the top of the foot of 10 healthy adults to create a condition similar to foot drop, and the effects of single-joint assistance and simultaneous multi-joint assistance were compared using Hurotics' soft exosuit (H-Medi). Compared with walking without device assistance (LW), multi-joint assistance of the hip and ankle together (MULTI) significantly increased minimum toe clearance during the swing phase, which may help lower the risk of trip-related falls. It also substantially improved the foot contact angle at the moment the foot meets the ground, and compared with ankle-only assistance, it produced broader and more distinct kinematic changes in hip and ankle trajectories in the late swing phase, improving overall gait mechanics.

 

Building on these results, Hurotics plans to pursue opportunities in the premium rehabilitation market and expand its business. While most foot-drop assistive devices on the market, such as ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs), control the ankle alone, H-Medi controls the ankle and hip together, demonstrating a differentiated technical advantage that also improves overall stability in late swing and the foot contact angle.

 

It can also address the abnormal proximal (hip) compensation seen in patients with foot drop caused by stroke or neurological injury, such as swinging the leg outward to make up for ankle weakness (circumduction).

 

H-Medi is already in use at major rehabilitation hospitals in Korea for the gait rehabilitation of patients with brain lesions. As the multi-joint control algorithm validated in this study is further refined and applied, its clinical value is expected to grow, and H-Medi is expected to evolve into a tailored premium solution that addresses patients' complex gait impairments more completely.