A blood lactate-based graded exercise test protocol for evaluating physiological response to wearable robots
提出一种以血乳酸浓度为主要指标的分级运动测试方案，用于评估可穿戴机器人对穿戴者造成的生理负担，发现血乳酸比传统指标更敏感地反映疲劳和代谢压力。
When wearable robots (WRs) are designed for daily use, their physiological burden on the wearer should be assessed using reliable parameters under standardised conditions. This study introduces a Graded Exercise Test (GXT) protocol employing blood lactate concentration (BLC) as the primary evaluation metric. Seventeen-participants performed a treadmill-based GXT twice with progressive speed and incline, once without load and once while carrying a simulated 10% body-weight load. During each test, heart rate (HR) and oxygen uptake (VO2) were continuously monitored, and BLC was measured every two minutes throughout the protocol. Results showed that BLC displayed nonlinear dynamics revealing exercise intensity transitions through lactate thresholds. While VO2 changed proportionally with workload, BLC increased earlier under loading conditions, reflecting metabolic perturbations associated with anaerobic activation. These findings demonstrate that the proposed BLC-based evaluation protocol provides more sensitive indicators of fatigue and metabolic strain than conventional measures when assessing the physiological demands imposed by WRs.