Validation of Methods for Estimation of Knee Joint Mechanical Impedance During Locomotion Using a Torque-Controllable Knee Exoskeleton

The mechanical impedance of the joints of the leg govern the body's response to external disturbances, and its regulation is essential for the completion of tasks of daily life. However, it is still unclear how this quantity is regulated at the knee during dynamic tasks. In this work, we introduce a method to estimate the mechanical impedance of spring-mass systems using a torque-controllable exoskeleton with the intention of extending these methods to characterize the mechanical impedance of the human knee during locomotion. We characterize system bandwidth and intrinsic impedance, and present a perturbation-based methodology to identify the mechanical impedance of known spring-mass systems. Our approach was able to obtain accurate estimates of stiffness and inertia, with errors under 3% and ~13-16%, respectively. This work provides a qualitative and quantitative foundation that will enable accurate estimates of knee joint impedance during locomotion in future works.