SummaryThe number of people with a mobility disorder caused by stroke, spinal cord injury, or other related diseases is increasing rapidly. To improve the quality of life of these people, devices that can assist them to regain the ability to walk are of great demand. Robotic devices that can release the burden of therapists and provide effective and repetitive gait training have been widely studied recently. By contrast, devices that can augment the physical abilities of able-bodied humans to enhance their performances in industrial and military work are needed as well. In the past decade, robotic assistive devices such as exoskeletons have undergone enormous progress, and some products have recently been commercialized. Exoskeletons are wearable robotic systems that integrate human intelligence and robot power. This paper first introduces the general concept of exoskeletons and reviews several typical lower extremity exoskeletons (LEEs) in three main applications (i.e. gait rehabilitation, human locomotion assistance, and human strength augmentation), and provides a systemic review on the acquisition of a wearer's motion intention and control strategies for LEEs. The limitations of the currently developed LEEs and future research and development directions of LEEs for wider applications are discussed.

There are currently no studies that determine the total burden that tendinopathy places on patients and society. A systematic search was conducted to understand the impact of tendinopathy. It demonstrated that the current prevalence is underestimated, particularly in active populations, such as athletes and workers. Search results demonstrate that due to the high prevalence, impact on patients' daily lives and the economic impact due to work-loss, treatments are significantly higher than currently observed. A well-accepted definition by medical professionals and the public will improve documentation and increase awareness, in order to better tackle the disease burden.

3This study presented a method to estimate the complete ground reaction forces from 4 pressure insoles in walking. Five male subjects performed ten walking trials in a 5 laboratory. The complete ground reaction forces were collected during a right foot 6 stride by a force plate at 1000 Hz. Simultaneous plantar pressure data were collected 7 at 100 Hz by a pressure insole system with 99 sensors covering the whole plantar area. 8Stepwise linear regressions were performed to individually reconstruct the complete 9 ground reaction forces in three directions from the 99 individual pressure data until 10 redundancy among the predictors occurred. An additional linear regression was 11 performed to reconstruct the vertical ground reaction force by the sum of the value of 12 the 99 pressure sensors. Five other subjects performed the same walking test for 13 validation. Estimated ground reaction forces in three directions were calculated with 14 the developed regression models, and were compared with the real data recorded from 15 force plate. Accuracy was represented by the correlation coefficient and the root mean 16 square error. Results showed very good correlation in anterior-posterior (0.928) and 17 vertical (0.989) directions, and reasonable correlation in medial-lateral direction 18 (0.719). The root mean square error was about 12%, 5% and 28% of the peak 19 recorded value. Future studies should aim to generalize the methods or to establish 20 specific methods to other subjects, patients, motions, footwear, and floor conditions. 21The method gives an extra option to study an estimation of the complete ground 22 reaction forces in any environment without the constraints from the number and 23 location of force plates. 24 25