Spine-Inspired Continuum Soft Exoskeleton for Stoop Lifting Assistance
Spine-Inspired Continuum Soft Exoskeleton for Stoop Lifting Assistance
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DOI：
10.1109/lra.2019.2935351
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发表时间：
2019-07
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Xiaolong Yang;T. Huang;Hang-ling Hu;Shuangyue Yu;Sainan Zhang;Xianlian Zhou;A. Carriero;Guang H. Yue;Hao Su
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Xiaolong Yang;T. Huang;Hang-ling Hu;Shuangyue Yu;Sainan Zhang;Xianlian Zhou;A. Carriero;Guang H. Yue;Hao Su
背部损伤是最常见的与工作有关的肌肉骨骼疾病，是导致残疾的主要原因。尽管可穿戴机器人的创新旨在减轻这种危险，但大多数现有的外骨骼都是突兀的，因为刚性连杆设计限制了自然运动，从而造成人体工程学风险。此外，这些现有的系统通常只适用于一种运动辅助，而不是普遍适用于各种各样的活动。为了填补这一空白，本文提出了一种新的可穿戴机器人设计方法连续软外骨骼。这个灵感来自脊柱的可穿戴机器人不引人注目，在不妨碍行走的情况下帮助蹲下和弯腰。为了解决脊柱独特的解剖结构不适合简化为单一自由度关节的挑战，我们的机器人符合人体解剖结构，可以减少人体脊柱的多种力，如脊柱肌肉力，腰椎的剪切力和压缩力。推导了该机构的运动学和动力学模型，建立了人机交互的解析生物力学模型。仿真中定量分析了圆盘压缩力、圆盘剪切力和肌肉力。我们进一步开发了一种虚拟阻抗控制策略来实现波登电缆传输的力控制和滞后补偿。在三名健康受试者身上进行了可行性实验。力跟踪的均方根误差为6.63 N (200 N峰值力的3.3%)，表明该方法可以主动控制刚度到期望值。这种连续软外骨骼代表了一种可行的解决方案，具有减少多种活动和多种力量沿人体脊柱的背部疼痛的潜力。
Back injuries are the most prevalent work-related musculoskeletal disorders and represent a major cause of disability. Although innovations in wearable robots aim to alleviate this hazard, the majority of existing exoskeletons are obtrusive because the rigid linkage design limits natural movement, thus causing ergonomic risk. Moreover, these existing systems are typically only suitable for one type of movement assistance, not ubiquitous for a wide variety of activities. To fill in this gap, this letter presents a new wearable robot design approach continuum soft exoskeleton. This spine-inspired wearable robot is unobtrusive and assists both squat and stoops while not impeding walking motion. To tackle the challenge of the unique anatomy of spine that is inappropriate to be simplified as a single degree of freedom joint, our robot is conformal to human anatomy and it can reduce multiple types of forces along the human spine such as the spinae muscle force, shear, and compression force of the lumbar vertebrae. We derived kinematics and kinetics models of this mechanism and established an analytical biomechanics model of human-robot interaction. Quantitative analysis of disc compression force, disc shear force and muscle force was performed in simulation. We further developed a virtual impedance control strategy to deliver force control and compensate hysteresis of Bowden cable transmission. The feasibility of the prototype was experimentally tested on three healthy subjects. The root mean square error of force tracking is 6.63 N (3.3% of the 200 N peak force) and it demonstrated that it can actively control the stiffness to the desired value. This continuum soft exoskeleton represents a feasible solution with the potential to reduce back pain for multiple activities and multiple forces along the human spine.