{
  "abstract": "Cable-driven soft exosuits for gait assistance are predominantly sagittal-plane devices, yet pathological gait involves coordinated deviations across all three anatomical planes. This study experimentally evaluated whether cable-routing geometry alone, within a single-actuator hip exosuit, can produce measurable multiplanar hip effects during walking. Ten healthy, exosuit-experienced male adults walked on a treadmill under five conditions: one matched unpowered control and four powered configurations that paired single-plane and multi-plane cable routing with hip-flexion and hip-extension assistance. Three-dimensional hip kinematics were compared across conditions, and exosuit-generated hip torques were estimated from subject-specific musculoskeletal models. Multi-plane routing produced phase-dependent kinematic changes concentrated in the transverse plane. Relative to unassisted walking, multi-plane flexion assistance increased hip internal rotation (3.6°, p = 0.0002), multi-plane extension assistance increased hip external rotation (1.8°, p = 0.0095), and single-plane flexion assistance produced a smaller but significant increase in external rotation (1.1°, p = 0.0463). Frontal-plane differences were not significant for any comparison with unassisted walking, so the hypothesized larger frontal-plane deviations under multi-plane routing were not supported. Multi-plane routing also produced greater sagittal-plane hip excursion than single-plane routing. Overall gait-trajectory similarity between single-plane and multi-plane routing was comparable in most comparisons and differed significantly only in the hip frontal plane during extension assistance. The estimated torques indicated that multi-plane routing introduced larger frontal- and transverse-plane components while the sagittal-plane component remained dominant. These findings show that cable-routing geometry alone can shape phase-localized hip kinematics, reaching significance in the transverse plane, without adding actuators. The effect magnitudes were small and near the measurement uncertainty of the capture system. The all-male, exosuit-experienced sample limits generalizability, so relevance to clinical populations remains to be tested. Cable-routing geometry is therefore proposed as a candidate rather than an established design variable for multi-dimensional assistance in soft exosuits.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.",
    "HUROTICS Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea."
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Junhyeong Kwon",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4931-1697"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Sejun Park"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Harry George Driscoll"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Giuk Lee",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9414-4475"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3dyt44rh1z2xz.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0359731",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13719030",
  "id": "3dyt44rh1z2xz",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0359731",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Anatomy"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Biological Locomotion"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Biology and Life Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Biomechanics"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Body Limbs"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Classical Mechanics"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Gait Analysis"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Hip"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Kinematics"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Knees"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Legs"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Medicine and Health Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Motion"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Musculoskeletal System"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Pelvis"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Physical Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Physics"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Physiology"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Research Article"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Skeletal Joints"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Skeleton"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Torque"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Walking"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Anatomy/Body limbs/Legs/Knees"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Anatomy/Musculoskeletal system/Skeleton/Pelvis/Hip"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Anatomy/Musculoskeletal system/Skeleton/Skeletal joints"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Anatomy/Musculoskeletal system/Skeleton/Skeletal joints/Knees"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Biomechanics"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Physiology/Biological locomotion/Gait analysis"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Physiology/Biological locomotion/Walking"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Anatomy/Body limbs/Legs/Knees"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Anatomy/Musculoskeletal system/Skeleton/Pelvis/Hip"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Anatomy/Musculoskeletal system/Skeleton/Skeletal joints"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Anatomy/Musculoskeletal system/Skeleton/Skeletal joints/Knees"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Physics/Classical mechanics/Kinematics"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Physics/Classical mechanics/Motion/Torque"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13719030?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13719030",
  "pmid": "42956052",
  "published": "2026-10-29",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3dyt44rh1z2xz.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:17Z",
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  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "heading:Biology and Life Sciences",
      "subfield": "general"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "plos:anatomy",
      "subfield": "physiology"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "heading:Physics",
      "subfield": "general"
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  ],
  "title": "Cable-routing geometry as a design variable for multiplanar hip assistance in a single-actuator soft exosuit",
  "title_text": "Cable-routing geometry as a design variable for multiplanar hip assistance in a single-actuator soft exosuit",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-02T12:22:56Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3dyt44rh1z2xz",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}