Soldiers must often endure long distances of loaded walking, or walking while carrying an added load. These conditions put stress on the human body, generating increased fatigue and injury when compared to unloaded walking [1]. In order to alleviate the burdens of loaded walking, a lightweight actuator device was designed to assist the leg, however; the work that each part of the leg does is not equal. As seen in Fig. 1, the ankle does a higher level of net work than either the knee or the hip. For this reason, the application of an actuator to assist the mechanical functions of the human body was posited to be most beneficial at the ankle, assisting the Achilles tendon during the natural gait cycle.
This application at the ankle might also help victims of disability who are trying to regain the ability to properly walk. By assisting at...
