Abstract. In recent years, exoskeletons are increasingly spreading
into the industrial manufacturing sector to improve productivity and to
reduce the incidence of work-related musculoskeletal diseases. The aim of
this paper is to present a 2 degrees of freedom (DoF) passive upper-limb
exoskeleton, consisting of two McKibben pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs),
and used for assisting workers during activities that require them to keep
their hands in a sustained position over the head for a long time. Simulations are performed to test two different commercial PAMs and two
different designs of the transmission system used to convey the traction
force exerted by the pneumatic muscles to the limb; then the results are
discussed. A preliminary assembly of the exoskeleton is also presented. The
study confirms that PAMs can be used to realize a passive upper-limb
exoskeleton for industrial application and that appropriate working space
can be obtained with an accurate design of the transmission system.
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