Metabolic Energy Consumption in a Box-Lifting Task: A Parametric Study on the Assistive Torque

This study showcases effect of adding assistive torques to the hip, knee, and ankle joints in the sagittal plane on the total human body metabolic energy expenditure using the AnyBody musculoskeletal modeling system. To this goal, a box-lifting task was targeted and metabolic energy was computed for several cases including when each of the three joints was assisted at a time. Simulation results showed that the hip joint assistance affects the total metabolic energy consumption more than the knee and ankle joints.