Human body enhancement is an interesting branch of robotics. It focuses on wearable robots in order to improve the performance of human body, reduce energy consumption and delay fatigue, as well as increase body speed. Robot-assisted equipment, such as wearable exoskeletons, are wearable robot systems that integrate human intelligence and robot power. After careful design and adaptation, the human body has energy-saving sports, but it is an arduous task for the exoskeleton to achieve considerable reduction in metabolic rate. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the biomechanics of human sports, the body, and its weaknesses. In this study, a lower limb exoskeleton was classified according to the power source, and the working principle, design idea, wearing mode, material and performance of different types of lower limb exoskeletons were compared and analyzed. The study shows that the unpowered exoskeleton robot has inherent advantages in endurance, mass, volume, and cost, which is a new development direction of robot exoskeletons. This paper not only summarizes the existing research but also points out its shortcomings through the comparative analysis of different lower limb wearable exoskeletons. Furthermore, improvement measures suitable for practical application have been provided.

Human augmentation is an important branch of robotics research aimed at reducing metabolic energy consumption, delaying fatigue, and increasing body speed. However, existing evaluation protocols lack systematic frameworks for unpowered hip devices. This study aims to reduce the energy consumption of human movement without providing additional power and to develop a hip-assisted exoskeleton device. Through gait, plantar pressure, and electromyography tests, the system studied the assistance performance of exoskeletons in three wearing states: “No exo.”, “Exo. on”, and “Exo. off”. A comprehensive evaluation method of unpowered lower limb wearable exoskeleton (CE-ULLWE) is established, featuring the novel three-condition design that isolates the structural mass effect from true assistance via the “Exo. off” condition, and integrates multi-indicator metrics including kinematics, dynamics, plantar pressure, EMG, and metabolic simulations. Combining wearing and exercise testing to obtain the human–machine compatibility of exoskeletons and the subjective comfort of users when wearing exoskeletons. Experimental results demonstrate that wearing the exoskeleton increases peak hip and knee angular velocities by 18.5% and 9.0%, reduces joint power, decreases plantar pressure center excursion by 32.3%, and lowers total metabolic energy consumption by 16.0%, confirming its effectiveness in reducing metabolic cost and delaying fatigue. This achievement has important theoretical guidance and practical application value for the design, function, and performance evaluation of wearable assistive exoskeleton products. The proposed CE-ULLWE offers a replicable, multi-indicator framework that clarifies assistive efficacy and guides future exoskeleton optimization.