Personal Mobility With Synchronous Trunk–Knee Passive Exoskeleton: Optimizing Human–Robot Energy Transfer
Diego F. Paez-Granados, Hideki Kadone, Modar Hassan, Yang Chen, Kenji Suzuki
2022
IEEE/ASME transactions on mechatronics
We present a personal mobility device for lower-body impaired users through a light-weighted exoskeleton on wheels. On its core, a novel passive exoskeleton provides postural transition leveraging natural body postures with support to the trunk on sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit (STS) transitions by a single gas spring as an energy storage unit. We propose a direction-dependent coupling of knees and hip joints through a double-pulley wire system, transferring energy from the torso motion towards
more »
... alancing the moment load at the knee joint actuator. Herewith, the exoskeleton maximizes energy transfer and the naturalness of the user's movement. We introduce an embodied user interface for hands-free navigation through a torso pressure sensing with minimal trunk rotations, resulting on average 19^∘± 13^∘ on six unimpaired users. We evaluated the design for STS assistance on 11 unimpaired users observing motions and muscle activity during the transitions. Results comparing assisted and unassisted STS transitions validated a significant reduction (up to 68% p<0.01) at the involved muscle groups. Moreover, we showed it feasible through natural torso leaning movements of +12^∘± 6.5^∘ and - 13.7^∘± 6.1^∘ for standing and sitting, respectively. Passive postural transition assistance warrants further work on increasing its applicability and broadening the user population.
doi:10.1109/tmech.2021.3135453
fatcat:ikqjcqhetvf6ribsdqawqiuzzu