Efficient Lower Limb Exoskeleton for Human Motion Assistance

Author(s):  
Nazim Mir-Nasiri
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (07) ◽  
pp. 1740042
Author(s):  
YANG LIU ◽  
YONGSHENG GAO ◽  
YANHE ZHU

Wearable lower limb exoskeleton has comprehensive applications such as load-carrying augmentation, walking assistance, and rehabilitation training by using many active actuators in the joints to reduce the metabolic cost generally. The traditional fully actuated exoskeleton is bulky and requires large energy consumption, and the passive exoskeleton is difficult to provide effective power assistance. To achieve both small number of actuators and good assisting performance, this paper proposes a cable-pulley underactuated principle-based lower limb exoskeleton. The exoskeleton dynamics was modeled and the human-exoskeleton hybrid model was analyzed via ADAMS and LifeMOD to provide an evaluation method for power assistance. By exploiting the control strategy and utilizing the synergies of torque and power assistance, the hip joint and the knee joint can be actuated by a single cable simultaneously. Moreover, the human-exoskeleton co-simulation method was utilized to verify the assisting performance and control effect. In this simulation, the upper toque peak and power required by human are obviously reduced by power assistance and the joint angle curves without exoskeleton are in accordance with the joint angle curves with exoskeleton almost. In conclusion, the designed exoskeleton is compatible with human motion and feasible to provide effective power assistance in load-carrying walking.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhe Zhu ◽  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Jizhuang Fan ◽  
Hongying Yu ◽  
Jie Zhao

A lower limb exoskeleton can help in weight-bearing and walking to assist laborers doing heavy work. For exoskeleton-assisted walking, the wearing comfort and walking convenience are important so there must be minimal interference with leg movement. Hence, a peculiar design strategy based on an in-sole sensing shoe is presented to achieve real-time motion detection and follow-up control of the moving leg. Compared to the elastic muscle extension, the sensor must exhibit minimal deflection under load. Therefore, an ultra-thin structure integrating 6 bar linkages and 3 cantilevers has been used in the design of the in-sole sensing shoe which can detect force in two directions and torque in one. A swing phase experiment and a random leg motion test were carried out. Results show validity of human motion detection and follow-up control strategy based on this plantar surface sensor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 172988141989349
Author(s):  
Bin Ren ◽  
Jianwei Liu ◽  
Jiayu Chen

The lower limb exoskeleton robot is capable of providing assisted walking and enhancing exercise ability of humans. The coupling human–machine model has attracted a lot of research efforts to solve the complex dynamics and nonlinearity within the system. This study focuses on an approach of gait trajectory optimization of lower limb exoskeleton coupled with human through genetic algorithm. The human–machine coupling system is studied in this article through multibody virtual simulation environment. Planning of the motion trajectory is carried out by the genetic algorithm, which is iteratively generated under optimization of a set of specially designed fitness functions. Human motion captured data are used to guide the evolution of gait trajectory generation method based on genetic algorithm. Experiments are carried out using the MATLAB/Simulink Multibody physical simulation engine and genetic algorithm-toolbox to generate a more natural gait trajectory, the results show that the proposed gait trajectory generation method can provide an anthropomorphic gait for lower limb exoskeleton device.


2014 ◽  
Vol 541-542 ◽  
pp. 1150-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Norhafizan ◽  
R.A.R. Ghazilla ◽  
Vijayabaskar Kasi ◽  
Z. Taha ◽  
Bilal Hamid

Robotic exoskeleton system has been found to be an active area of study which being used in human power augmentation, human power assistance, robotic rehabilitation, and haptic interaction in virtual reality developed in recent robotic research. In recent years, the application of robotic exoskeleton has become more prominent as to provide alternative solutions for physically less incapable people (PLIP) support in their daily movements. Most common difficulties faced by PLIP are in sit-to-stand, ascending and descending staircases. Unlike industrial robots, the robotic exoskeleton systems need to consider a special design because they directly interact with human user. In the mechanical design of these systems, human and robotic suitable kinematics, wearer safety, human user comfort wearing, low inertia, and adaptability should be especially considered. Controllability, responsiveness, flexible and smooth motion generation, and safety should especially be considered in the controllers of exoskeleton systems. Furthermore, the controller should generate the motions in accordance with the human motion intention. This paper briefly reviews the lower-limb robotic exoskeleton systems. In the short review, it is focused to identify the brief history, basic concept, challenges, and future development of the robotic exoskeleton systems to assist the physically less incapable people (PLIP) in rising up, sitting, ascending and descending staircases. Furthermore, key technologies of lower-limb exoskeleton systems are reviewed by taking state-of-the-art robot as examples. Keywords: List the Robotic exoskeleton systems, rehabilitation robotics, man-machine intelligent system


2012 ◽  
Vol 479-481 ◽  
pp. 1909-1917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Liu ◽  
Wen Ming Cheng ◽  
Nan Zhao

In this study, a multi-shape object-oriented human motion model is built using HumanCAD simulation platform to simulate the movement of a particular action; taking structural load-bearing characteristics as the objective function, combined with ergonomic parameters of the constraints, using particle swarm optimization, the study has made an optimized simulation of lower limb three-hinge power-assisted structure for multi-object under multiple constraints and established solid models with Solidworks based on the optimization; the study has realized data exchange between the analysis software of Ansys and the solid models, built a multi-rod coupling analysis model, made the strength calculation and modal analysis, proposed optimization strategies to make improvement, and provided parameters for structural dynamics optimization design.


Author(s):  
Wilian dos Santos ◽  
Samuel Lourenco ◽  
Adriano Siqueira ◽  
Polyana Ferreira Nunes

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