Lateral resistance walk exercise (LRWE) has been widely used in fitness and rehabilitation training. Current popular method for LRWE is lateral band walks (LBW) which the training intensity cannot be actively controlled. In this paper, we proposed an exoskeleton which can strengthen the hip adductor and abductor in LRWE. The lateral walking gait was divided and recognized by a real-time gait recognition method based on wearable sensors. The variable admittance controller was designed based on lateral walking gait phase. For the leading and trailing legs, the resistance torques were produced from 10% to 50% and from 55% to 100% of the gait cycle, respectively. The muscle activities of hip abductors including gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and tensor fasciae latae of leading leg under Exo-on condition (6Nm) were approximately 3.6, 2.2, and 3.0 times of No-exo condition, respectively. The muscle activity of adductor magnus of trailing leg under Exo-on condition was about 2.5 times of No-exo condition. The results indicate that the designed hip exoskeleton can be applied to LRWE and enhance muscle activity of the hip adductor and abductor. It has good potential to upgrade the exercise method of LRWE and enhance the intelligence of LRWE.
Cao et al. (Sun,) studied this question.