**4. Applications to prosthesis and exoskeleton**

The theoretical analysis mentioned above indicates that the segmented foot model with compliant joints is more complicated than the rigid foot model in both foot structure and walking sequence. However, segmented foot models with foot structure close to human body show better walking performance (energetic efficiency and stability) compared with rigid-foot walking. Based on the results, here we introduce the design of the lower-limb prosthesis (PANTOE 1) [26] and exoskeleton prototype (EXO-PANTOE 1) [27] with compliant joints and segmented foot. At first, a brief overview of compliant actuators in robotics is presented. It shows the reasons of using spring based compliant actuators for joints in the proposed prosthesis and exoskeleton.
