Abstract: Wearable ankle exoskeletons are a key testbed for assistive control and human-robot interaction during locomotion, but many systems remain difficult to build and deploy due to fabrication and fitting overhead (e.g., computer numerical control (CNC) machining or composite processes, long lead times, and shoe-specific interfaces). We present Print-Exo, an open-source, shoe-agnostic, fully 3D-printable ankle exoskeleton platform designed to lower the barrier to earlystage locomotion research and rapid prototyping. PrintExo can be fabricated using consumer-grade fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing and standard off-the-shelf components, and integrates a compact 3D-printed 1:4 planetary gearbox for ankle assistance (total assembled mass: 1.33 kg per leg, excluding the user's shoe). A lace-anchored shoe interface transmits torque through commercially available lace-up footwear without permanent modification, enabling fast fitting across participants. The device was evaluated in a feasibility pilot treadmill study with five able-bodied participants walking at 1.0 m/s under three conditions: no-device, zero-torque, and powered assistance, and was reused sequentially across participants. Across completed sessions, gross metabolic power was lower under powered assistance than under zero-torque, and encoderderived kinematics captured device-side ankle motion during torque application. Overall, PrintExo provides a practical, low-overhead, open-source platform for accessible ankle-exoskeleton prototyping and pilot locomotion experiments.   submitted by   /u/eternviking   to   r/Biomechatronics [link]   [comments]