Co-Ex: A Torque-Controllable Lower Body Exoskeleton for Dependable Human-Robot Co-existence

Abstract

In this paper, we present our research study concerning the design and development of an exoskeleton that aims to provide 3D walking support with minimum number of actuators. Following a prior simulation study, the joint configuration was primarily determined. In order for the exoskeleton to possess advanced characteristics, the following design criteria were investigated: i) all the actuators (hip/knee/ankle) were deployed around the waist area to decrease leg weight and improve wearability, ii) custom-built series elastic actuators were used to power system for high fidelity torque-controllability, iii) 3D walking support is potentially enabled with reduced power requirements. As a result, we built the first actual prototype to experimentally verify the aforementioned design specifications. Furthermore, the preliminary torque control experiments indicated the viability of torque control.

An Experimental Study of a Bluetooth Communication System for Robot Motion Control

“…In a future work, we plan to encapsulate joint modules into singular units and integrate them with the exoskeleton joints designed in [25]. In addition, the proposed algorithm will be compared with the conventional ones in a future study.…”

Reaction Force Observer based Torque Control

“…Bu sayede dış iskelet robotlar ve fiziksel insanla etkileşim halinde olabilen cobot sistemleri daha basit donanımsal yapılara kavuşabilecektir. Makalemizde konu edilen tork kontrolcüsünün laboratuvarımızda üretilen dış iskelet sistemlerine uygulanışı bir sonraki çalışmamıza konu edilecektir [13,14].…”