Myoelectric Origami‐Based Soft Robotic Knee Exoskeleton to Enhance Sit‐to‐Stand Assistance in Elderly Populations

This article presents a soft robotic knee exoskeleton for sit‐to‐stand assistance in older people, combining a vacuum‐driven Miura‐ori actuator with real‐time biosignal control. The origami‐inspired structure achieves high force‐to‐weight efficiency (350 N peak and 63% contraction) without requiring internal chambers or molds. The integrated exoskeleton weighs only 99.9 g, offering significant advantages in terms of lightweight design and long‐term wearability. A supervised learning model that fuses surface electromyography and inertial measurement unit signals enables accurate recognition of motion intent. The system, deployed on a lightweight Python–Arduino framework, consistently maintains a latency of <200 ms with 95% on‐body accuracy. Quantitative human trials confirmed reduced muscle activation variability, with decreases of 30%–57% across hamstring and quadriceps measures. These reductions support the actuator's effectiveness in offloading joint demand and improving user comfort, demonstrating its feasibility for daily assistive use.