Architecture and Hydraulics of a Lower Extremity Exoskeleton

Author(s):  
Adam Zoss ◽  
H. Kazerooni

Wheeled vehicles are often incapable of transporting heavy materials over rough terrain or up staircases. Lower extremity exoskeletons supplement human intelligence with the strength and endurance of a pair of wearable robotic legs that support a payload. This paper summarizes the design and analysis of the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX). The anthropomorphically-based BLEEX has seven degrees of freedom per leg, four of which are powered by linear hydraulic actuators. The selection of the degrees of freedom, critical hardware design aspects, and initial performance measurements of BLEEX are discussed.

Author(s):  
Yoon Jung Jeong ◽  
Homayoon Kazerooni

Lower extremity exoskeletons augment ability of walking, sitting and standing upright with a pair of robotic legs that ambulates the user with mobility disorder. As a mobility aid, being lightweight and compact can highly increase usability by allowing users to navigate through narrow passages. This paper summarizes the design of low profile actuators designed for minimally actuated exoskeleton, a lightweight and low profile powered medical exoskeleton developed in Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory at UC Berkeley. An analytical method for designing low profile BLDC actuation units, critical hardware design aspects, and initial performance measurements are discussed. A set of pancake DC actuation units was designed, manufactured, assembled, and integrated into a lower limb medical exoskeleton. This exoskeleton was tested by a male 28-year-old paraplegic test pilot with injury level of T12.


1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. W. Matta

A technique for the selection of dynamic degrees of freedom (DDOF) of large, complex structures for dynamic analysis is described and the formulation of Ritz basis vectors for static condensation and component mode synthesis is presented. Generally, the selection of DDOF is left to the judgment of engineers. For large, complex structures, however, a danger of poor or improper selection of DDOF exists. An improper selection may result in singularity of the eigenvalue problem, or in missing some of the lower frequencies. This technique can be used to select the DDOF to reduce the size of large eigenproblems and to select the DDOF to eliminate the singularities of the assembled eigenproblem of component mode synthesis. The execution of this technique is discussed in this paper. Examples are given for using this technique in conjunction with a general purpose finite element computer program GENSAM[1].


2012 ◽  
Vol 186 ◽  
pp. 239-246
Author(s):  
Silviu Mihai Petrişor ◽  
Ghiţă Bârsan

The authors of this paper aim to highlight the basic design of a flexible manufacturing cell destined for the final processing of water radiators used for AAVs, cell serviced by a serial modular industrial robot possessing in its kinematic chain structure three degrees of freedom, RRT SIL type. The paper outlines the concept, calculation and design of the (MRB) rotation module at the studied industrial robot’s base and of the (MT) translation module of the prehension device attached to the robotic arm. Depending on the organological elements that are part of the MRB rotation module and based on a rigorous dynamic study performed on robotic modules, modeling conducted with the help of Lagrangian equations of the second kind, a dynamic-organological calculation algorithm was obtained for the selection of the appropriate driving servomotor necessary to putting the rotation movable system into service. The last part of the paper deals with the flexible manufacturing cell, together with the calculations related to profitability, economy and investment return duration, following the implementation of the RRT SIL-type industrial robot.


Antiquity ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (340) ◽  
pp. 378-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.I. Shishlina ◽  
D.S. Kovalev ◽  
E.R. Ibragimova

The origin and development of wheeled vehicles continues to fascinate today no less than when Stuart Piggott (1974) first wrote about the subject inAntiquity40 years ago. A growing number of examples from the steppes of southern Russia and Ukraine are providing new insights into the design and construction of these complex artefacts. A recent example from the Ulan IV burial mound illustrates the techniques employed and the mastery of materials, with careful selection of the kinds of wood used for the wheels, axles and other elements. Stable isotope analysis of the individual interred in this grave showed that he had travelled widely, emphasising the mobility of steppe populations.



Author(s):  
ChiHyo Kim ◽  
KunWoo Park ◽  
TaeSung Kim ◽  
MinKi Lee

This paper designs a four legged parallel mechanism to improve the dexterity of three layered parallel walking robot. Topology design is conducted for a leg mechanism composed of four legs, base and ground, which constitute a redundant parallel mechanism. This mechanism is subdivided into four sub-mechanism composed of three legs. A motor vector is adopted to determine the 6×8 Jacobian of the redundant parallel mechanism and the 6×6 Jacobian of the sub-mechanisms, respectively. The condition number of the Jacobian matrix is used as an index to measure a dexterity. We analyze the condition numbers of the Jacobian over the positional and orientational walking space. The analytical results show that a sub-mechanism has lots of singularities within workspace but they are removed by a redundant parallel mechanism improving the dexterity. This paper presents a parallel typed walking robot to enlarge walking space and stability region. Seven types of three layered walking robots are designed by inserting an intermediate mechanism between the upper and the lower legged parallel mechanisms. They provide various types of gaits to walk rough terrain and climb over a wall with small degrees of freedom.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 814-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Sánchez ◽  
Ana Maria Acosta ◽  
Roberto Lopez-Rosado ◽  
Arno H. A. Stienen ◽  
Julius P. A. Dewald

Although global movement abnormalities in the lower extremity poststroke have been studied, the expression of specific motor impairments such as weakness and abnormal muscle and joint torque coupling patterns have received less attention. We characterized changes in strength, muscle coactivation and associated joint torque couples in the paretic and nonparetic extremity of 15 participants with chronic poststroke hemiparesis (age 59.6 ± 15.2 years) compared with 8 age-matched controls. Participants performed isometric maximum torques in hip abduction, adduction, flexion and extension, knee flexion and extension, ankle dorsi- and plantarflexion and submaximal torques in hip extension and ankle plantarflexion. Surface electromyograms (EMGs) of 10 lower extremity muscles were measured. Relative weakness (paretic extremity compared with the nonparetic extremity) was measured in poststroke participants. Differences in EMGs and joint torques associated with maximum voluntary torques were tested using linear mixed effects models. Results indicate significant poststroke torque weakness in all degrees of freedom except hip extension and adduction, adductor coactivation during extensor tasks, in addition to synergistic muscle coactivation patterns. This was more pronounced in the paretic extremity compared with the nonparetic extremity and with controls. Results also indicated significant interjoint torque couples during maximum and submaximal hip extension in both extremities of poststroke participants and in controls only during maximal hip extension. Additionally, significant interjoint torque couples were identified only in the paretic extremity during ankle plantarflexion. A better understanding of these motor impairments is expected to lead to more effective interventions for poststroke gait and posture.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
GUSTI AYU PUTU YULIANDARI ◽  
I GUSTI AYU MADE SRINADI ◽  
I WAYAN SUMARJAYA

Taguchi method purpose to improve the quality of a product. This method can reduce the number of execution of the experiment when compared to using a full factorial method. measures taken, namely the calculation of degrees of freedom, the selection of orthogonal array to reduce the run, then calculating S/NR is used to determine the optimal composition of the factors that will affect the durability of asphalt. The results of this research that the optimal composition of the factors that affect the resistance of asphalt are aggregate of 6987.57 tons, temperature of 155? C, compaction speed 5 km/h, hardening time for 4 hours after paving before the opening of traffic at normal speed, thickness of 6.27 cm thick bitumen from the aggregate surface, body weight that is weighing 7 ton. Dimensions of factors is an area of ??5.598m.


Author(s):  
Mostafa Yacoub ◽  
Ahmed Ali

Abstract Multi-axle skid-steer wheeled vehicles have the advantages of simplicity and enhanced traction. That’s why they are used in off-road environments and also in mobile robots. In the present work, a dynamic analysis of the propulsion system requirements for multi-axle wheeled vehicles is investigated. As the multi-axle wheeled vehicle differentially steers at a smaller turning radius, the driving torque requirements approach their peak. The adhesion at each tire of the multi-axle vehicle and its relation to the contact patches are analyzed. The analysis presented starts with four wheel drive, six wheel drive and eight wheel drive vehicles, then it is widened to n-wheel drive vehicles. A generic formula for obtaining the propulsion torque requirements for multi-axle skid-steer wheeled vehicles is presented. The analysis is extended to include experimental validation of the obtained analytical results. The experimental work includes three small electrically driven skid-steer vehicles; four wheel drive vehicle, six wheel drive vehicle and eight wheel drive vehicle. The selection of the drive motors for each of those vehicles was based on the proposed formula. Each of the three vehicles was tested in the worst case adhesion torque requirement. The experimental results showed that the proposed formula is capable, to a great extent, to predict the torque requirements for the multi-axle skid-steer wheeled vehicles in the design phase.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document