The lower extremity exoskeleton used for human power augmentation is an intelligent robotic device that imitates the movement of the wearer to improvehis capacity of load-carrying, walking speed and duration. Therefore it is an important tool in rescuing, field manipulating and military applications. In this paper, the state-of-the-art prototype development at home and abroad is analyzed, which reveals that the domestic research is still in the theoretical analysis and laboratory test stage. A review on the key techniques of the lower extremity exoskeletons is presented. Some developing trends are stated at the end of this paper.

exoskeleton  /  wearable robots  /  human power augmentation