Optimizing a passive hip exoskeleton for balance on a prosthetic foot

Use of passive exoskeletons to tune muscle-tendon dynamics for improvement of balance remains an unexplored area of research. A computational model of standing balance on a passive prosthesis was used to find values of hip exoskeleton stiffness and damping which optimized resistance to destabilizing lateral perturbations. Unexpectedly, optimum exoskeleton stiffness and damping were dependent on prosthesis stiffness, and did not tune hip muscle-tendon units for maximum dissipation of the destabilizing impulse.