Abstract Robotic and functional electrical stimulation (FES) approaches are used for
rehabilitation of walking impairment of spinal cord injured individuals. Although devices are
commercially available, there are still issues that remain to be solved. Control of hybrid
exoskeletons aims at blending robotic exoskeletons and electrical stimulation to overcome
the drawbacks of each approach while preserving their advantages. Hybrid actuation and
control have a considerable potential for walking rehabilitation but there is a need of novel …

Hybrid control of walking aims blending robotic exoskeletons and electrical stimulation to
overcome the drawbacks of each while preserving their advantages. In this article, a hybrid
cooperative control strategy is presented. We present experimental results in healthy
subjects, showing the controller ability to balance power contribution among exoskeleton
and muscle stimulation.