Can ankle exoskeletons reduce the metabolic cost of older adult locomotion?

We used a simple musculoskeletal model to determine the ability of an elastic ankle exoskeleton to restore older adult locomotion performance to that of young adults. We found that exoskeleton stiffness (kexo) values greater than 10% of young adult Achilles tendon stiffness (kten*) can reduce the metabolic demand of older adults to levels below that of young adults during simulated hopping.