Patent ID: 8096965

Claim:
An exoskeleton bracing system comprising: a trunk support for affixing to the trunk of a disabled person; leg braces for connecting to the legs of the person, each leg brace including limb segment braces; motorized joints adapted to provide relative angular movement between the limb segment braces of the leg braces and between the leg braces and the trunk support; a plurality of ground force sensors designed to sense ground force exerted on each of the leg braces that is indicative of a distribution of weight of the person between the leg braces, the distribution of weight being indicative of a stance; and a controller for receiving sensed signals from said one or more ground force sensors, with an algorithm for identifying the stance from the sensed signals and, based on the identified stance, actuating the motorized joints to perform an action relating to a mode of locomotion selected from a set of predefined actions corresponding to the identified stance.