Functional Improvement and Satisfaction with a Wearable Hip Exoskeleton in Community-Living Adults

Abstract

Demand for wearable devices and supportive technology is growing as these devices have the potential to enhance physical function and quality of life in users. The purpose of this study was to investigate usability and satisfaction after performing functional and gait exercise with a wearable hip exoskeleton in community-living adults. A total of 225 adults residing in the local community participated in this study. All participants performed 40 min of exercise once with a wearable hip exoskeleton in various environments. The EX1, which functions as a wearable hip exoskeleton, was used. Physical function was assessed before and after exercise with the EX1. After completing exercise with the EX1, the usability and satisfaction questionnaires were evaluated. Gait speed, timed up and go test (TUG), and four square step test (FSST) showed statistically significant improvements after exercise with the EX1 in both groups (p < 0.05). In the 6 min walking test (6MWT), a significant increase was observed in the middle-aged group (p < 0.05). In the short physical performance battery (SPPB), there was a significant improvement in the old-aged group (p < 0.05). On the other hand, positive results in usability and satisfaction were noticed in both groups. These results demonstrate that a single session of exercise with the EX1 was effective in improving physical performance of both middle- and old-aged adults, with positive feedback from most of the participants.

Bridging the Gap: Exploring Opportunities, Challenges, and Problems in Integrating Assistive Technologies, Robotics, and Automated Machines into the Health Domain

“…To explore the opportunities, challenges, issues, and bottlenecks of integrating these tools (alone or interconnected) into the domain, this Special Issue [10] was initiated in May 2022, and was subsequently completed in January 2023. This Special Issue collected 17 contributions plus an editorial [1,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], and covered a wide range of topics, including:…”

“…Kim et al [12] investigated enhancing usability and satisfaction among adults in community living through functional and gait exercises utilizing a wearable hip exoskeleton. They showed that a single session of exercise with this tool allowed an improvement in performance of both middle-and old-aged adults.…”

“…The important interest of scholars in the field of robotics, both as regards rehabilitation aspects [12,14,17] (also through protocols that simulate sports activities [17]), and in the applications of social robotics [19,24], and as regards technological-propulsive aspects [21];…”