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Improving Balance and Energetics of Walking Using a Hip Exoskeleton

Key facts

Who runs it
North Carolina State University
Where
Raleigh, United StatesSee the site
Trial code
Status
Recruiting
People taking part
100 people, planned
Started
1 Jun 2022
Expected to end
31 Dec 2027
Type of study
Interventional, 2 groups
Treatments tested
  • A zero impedance mode, controlling a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton
  • A personalized optimal assistance mode, controlling a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton
  • A free walking mode, without wearing a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton
Record updated
13 November 2026

Who can take part

Age
18 years to 64 years
Sex
Women and men
Healthy volunteers
Can take part

The registry criteria, word for word

Show all 32 criteriaShow less

Who can take part

  • Between 18 and 64 years old
  • Live in the United States
  • Able to understand study requirements and sign an informed consent
  • Have full range of motion in your hip joint
  • Able to walk normally without any assistance
  • Between 18 and 64 years old
  • Live in the United States
  • Able to understand study requirements and sign an informed consent
  • Have weakness on one side of their body due to a stroke within the past 6 months
  • Have the doctor confirm that the subjects had a stroke within the past 6 months
  • Can walk without any assistance for at least 6 minutes and 1000 feet (a little less than a quarter-mile)
  • Can walk at a speed of 1 mile per hour
  • Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing
  • Capable of safely stepping on stairs without an Ankle-Foot Orthosis but may use canes as needed

Who cannot take part

  • Use an electronically controlled medical device, such as a pacemaker, implanted defibrillator, or drug pump
  • Use an electronically controlled medical device, such as a pacemaker, implanted defibrillator, or drug pump
  • Suffered from a stroke that affects balance or walking
  • You have any skin-related allergies or irritation to adhesives
  • Have blood circulation, heart, metabolic, or cognitive disorders, including but not limited to: Peripheral vascular disease, Pitting edema, Heart disease, Diabetes (uncontrolled), Seizures, and Cognitive diagnoses that affect their ability to process information
  • Have vision, balance, or reaching issues unrelated to stroke
  • Have any skin related allergies or irritation to adhesives
  • Have blood circulation, heart, metabolic, or cognitive disorders, including but not limited to: Peripheral vascular disease, Pitting edema, Heart disease, Diabetes (uncontrolled), and Seizures
  • Cannot follow instructions or provide feedback due to cognitive or language limitations
  • Pregnancy
  • Experience numbness, tingling, muscle weakness, pain, or paralysis in any part of your body
  • Cannot walk or balance without help from a person or a tool, such as a walker or cane
  • Limited movement in your hip or ankle
  • Cannot follow instructions or provide feedback due to cognitive, spatial awareness, and/or language limitations
  • Are pregnant
  • Cannot walk without an ankle-foot brace or a therapist's assistance
  • Cannot walk or balance without the help of a tool, such as a walker or cane
  • Have numbness, tingling, muscle weakness, or pain in any part of your body

Check if you might fit

Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.

  • Are you between 18 and 64 years old?

Where in United States

  • North Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, United StatesContact: Helen Huang, Ph.D.Taking people

About the trial

What the trial wants to find out

Robotic lower limb exoskeletons aim to improve or augment limb functions. Automatic modulation of robotic assistance is very important because it can increase the assistive outcomes and guarantee safety when using exoskeletons.

Read full original descriptionShow less

However, this automatic assistance adjustment is challenging due to person-to-person and day-to-day variations, as well as the time-varying complex human-machine-interaction forces. In recent years, human-in-the-loop optimization methods have been investigated to reduce participants' metabolic costs by providing personalized assistance from robotic exoskeletons. However, metabolic cost measure is noisy and the experimental protocol is usually relatively long. In addition, the influence of exoskeleton control on this human state in terms of energetic cost is unclear and indirect. More importantly, the optimization by reducing metabolic cost is found to affect human gait patterns and cause undesired outcomes. In this study, new evaluation measures other than metabolic cost will be investigated to optimize the assistance from a powered hip exoskeleton based on a reinforcement learning method. It is hypothesized that the new reinforcement learning-based optimal control approach will produce personalized torque assistance, reduce human volitional effort, and improve balance and other performance during walking tasks. Both participants without and with neurological disorders will be included in this study.

The 2 groups in the trial

  • Group A - Participants without neurological disordersTreatment being tested

    Individuals without any neurological disorders will be recruited (Group A). Usually, participants from this group are able to walk normally on different terrains and at multiple typical walking speeds.

    Treatment: A zero impedance mode, controlling a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton, A personalized optimal assistance mode, controlling a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton, and A free walking mode, without wearing a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton

  • Group B - Participants with paretic strokeTreatment being tested

    Individuals with paretic stroke will be recruited (Group S). Usually, participants from this group have limited hip joint motion of range, weakened hip joint flexion or extension, or both flexion and extension functionalities, but they can also walk independently.

    Treatment: A zero impedance mode, controlling a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton, A personalized optimal assistance mode, controlling a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton, and A free walking mode, without wearing a wearable bilateral hip exoskeleton

Questions to ask the study team

  1. How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
  2. Are travel costs paid?
  3. Can I keep my own doctor?
  4. What happens if I want to stop?

Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations

Print a page for my doctor

Data and sources

Registry record
Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Official title
Learning-based Control of a Hip Exoskeleton to Improve Balance and Energetics of Human Walking Functions
Fit questions
Built from NCT05447884, who can take part
Record updated
13 November 2026