A Novel Exoskeleton Design and Numerical Characterization for Human Gait Assistance

Abstract

This paper addressed attention to the design of a new lower limb exoskeleton that can be used for human gait assistance as based on kinematic considerations. The designed leg exoskeleton had on its own structure a combination of three mechanism types, namely a Chebyshev mechanism, a pantograph, and a Stephenson six-bar mechanism. The design core focused on inserting the Stephenson six-bar bar mechanism in order to obtain an imposed motion at the ankle joint level. Numerical simulations of the designed lower limb exoskeleton have been developed and the obtained results demonstrate the engineering feasibility of the proposed prototype, with a characterization of satisfactory operation performance.

Dynamic Modeling and Performance Analysis of a Hip Rehabilitation Robot

“…The emergence of hip exoskeleton robots [6] is good news for patients affected by hip dyskinesia, but most exoskeleton rehabilitation robots are tandem mechanisms, such as Alex [7] and LOPES [8], meaning that they are characterized by a poor dynamic performance and poor structural stability. People have also considered the use of a parallel mechanism to improve the performance of rehabilitation robots which has some significant kinematic and dynamic characteristics [9].…”