Biologically-inspired soft exosuit.
Biologically-inspired soft exosuit.
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DOI：
10.1109/icorr.2013.6650455
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发表时间：
2013-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Walsh, Conor J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Asbeck, Alan T;Dyer, Robert J;Walsh, Conor J
在本文中，我们提出了一种新的软电缆驱动的外装护具，可以施加力的身体，以协助行走的设计和评估。与包含刚性框架元件的传统外骨骼不同，软外装像衣服一样穿着，但可以在脚踝和臀部产生力矩，其幅度分别为行走期间身体自然产生的力矩的18%和30%。我们的设计使用齿轮电机来拉动连接到脚踝附近的西装的鲍登电缆。与传统的外骨骼相比，该套装的优点在于穿戴者的关节不受外部刚性结构的约束，并且套装的穿戴部分非常轻，这最小化了套装对身体自然生物力学的无意干扰。然而，软服提出了与致动力传递和控制相关的挑战，因为身体是顺应性的并且不能舒适地支撑大的压力。我们讨论的西装和驱动系统的设计，包括软西装可以有效地传递力的身体和生物设计的灵感的原则。对于软机器护甲，重要的设计参数是护甲及其与穿戴者的界面的组合有效刚度。我们表征的机器护甲的有效刚度，并提出了初步的结果，从它产生的辅助扭矩的受试者在行走。我们设想这样的外装具有广泛的适用性，以帮助健康的个人以及那些肌肉无力。
In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a novel soft cable-driven exosuit that can apply forces to the body to assist walking. Unlike traditional exoskeletons which contain rigid framing elements, the soft exosuit is worn like clothing, yet can generate moments at the ankle and hip with magnitudes of 18% and 30% of those naturally generated by the body during walking, respectively. Our design uses geared motors to pull on Bowden cables connected to the suit near the ankle. The suit has the advantages over a traditional exoskeleton in that the wearer's joints are unconstrained by external rigid structures, and the worn part of the suit is extremely light, which minimizes the suit's unintentional interference with the body's natural biomechanics. However, a soft suit presents challenges related to actuation force transfer and control, since the body is compliant and cannot support large pressures comfortably. We discuss the design of the suit and actuation system, including principles by which soft suits can transfer force to the body effectively and the biological inspiration for the design. For a soft exosuit, an important design parameter is the combined effective stiffness of the suit and its interface to the wearer. We characterize the exosuit's effective stiffness, and present preliminary results from it generating assistive torques to a subject during walking. We envision such an exosuit having broad applicability for assisting healthy individuals as well as those with muscle weakness.