Balance and stability issues in lower extremity exoskeletons: A systematic review

The lower extremity exoskeletons (LEE) are used as an assistive device for disabled people, rehabilitation for paraplegic, and power augmentation for military or industrial workers. In all the applications of LEE, the dynamic and static balance, prevention of falling, ensuring controller stability and smooth human-exoskeleton interaction are of critical importance for the safety of LEE users. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the balance and stability issues in LEEs, there is yet to be a systematic review that provides a holistic viewpoint and highlights the current research challenges. This paper reviews the advances in the inclusion of falling recognition, balance recovery and stability assurance strategies in the design and application of LEEs. The current status of research on LEEs is presented. It has been found that Zero Moment Point (ZMP), Centre of Mass (CoM) and Extrapolated Center of mass (XCoM) ideas are mostly used for balancing and prevention of falling. In addition, Lyapunov stability criteria are the dominant methods for controller stability confirmation and smooth human-exoskeleton interaction. The challenges and future trend of this domain of research are discussed. Researchers can use this review as a basis to further develop methods for ensuring the safety of LEE's users.