Novel Accordion-Inspired Foldable Pneumatic Actuators for Knee Assistive Devices

Computerized machine knitting offers an attractive fabrication technology for incorporating wearable assistive devices into garments. In this work, we utilized, for the first time, whole-garment knitting techniques to manufacture a seamless fully knitted pneumatic bending actuator, which represents an advancement to existing cut-and-sew manufacturing techniques. Various machine knitting parameters were investigated to create anisotropic actuator structures, which exhibited a range of bending and extension motions when pressurized with air. The functionality of the actuator was demonstrated through integration into an assistive glove for hand grip action. The achieved curvature range when pressurizing the actuators up to 150 kPa was sufficient to grasp objects down to 3 cm in diameter and up to 125 g in weight. This manufacturing technique is rapid and scalable, paving the way for mass-production of customizable soft robotics wearables.

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Characterization of Active/Passive Pneumatic Actuators for Assistive Devices

2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) ◽

10.1109/iros.2018.8594143 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Daisuke Kaneishi ◽

Masayoshi Tomizuka ◽

Robert Peter Matthew

Keyword(s):

Assistive Devices ◽

Pneumatic Actuators

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Design and Computational Modeling of Fabric Soft Pneumatic Actuators for Wearable Assistive Devices

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-65003-2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Pham Huy Nguyen ◽

Wenlong Zhang

Keyword(s):

Computational Modeling ◽

Assistive Devices ◽

Pneumatic Actuators

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Design and Characterization of an Automated Assistive Knee Brace for Leg Muscle Rehabilitation

Volume 3: Biomedical and Biotechnology Engineering ◽

10.1115/imece2019-11802 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Sohail Zaidi ◽

Austin Huynh ◽

Peara Thach ◽

Isaac Rubio ◽

Harsh Patel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reaction Times ◽

Assistive Devices ◽

Assistive Device ◽

Control Loop ◽

Knee Brace ◽

Pneumatic Actuators ◽

Human Knee ◽

Natural Motion ◽

And Robotics

Abstract The advances in the field of mechatronics and robotics have allowed us to create a variety of medical devices. Comparable advances are not reported in the area of rehabilitation and assistive devices. In the prior work, the authors have created an automated orthotic knee joint that provides assistance to the victims of partial paralysis. This device uses electromyography sensors to gather impulse signals and use pneumatic actuators in the form of fluidic muscles. A microcontroller is used to interpret the signals from the sensors and uses a feedback control loop to provide augmented strength and mobility to the wearer. This paper reports a couple of experiments performed to characterize the behavior of this knee brace. Firstly, the brace is operated stand-alone with the help of electromyography sensors attached to a healthy individual. The system provided reaction times from one to three seconds, which is reasonable for an assistive device. Next, the system is attached to a mannequin that mimics the behavior of a human knee. While the brace is observed to be behaving as expected, the reaction times were significantly higher than that of the natural motion of the human leg. The study provided insights about several parameters that need to be optimized before the brace is completely operational.

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