SOFT WEARABLE ASSISTIVE GARMENTS FOR HUMAN EMPOWERMENT (SWAG)

在过去的十年里，软机器人技术已经成为发展最快的领域之一，与相关的建模、传感、驱动和控制挑战相关的技术的发展蓬勃发展，这是该领域的一部分动力。软机器人已被展示在各种应用中，如可穿戴设备、移动或机车机器人，以及软机械手。柔性外骨骼是目前最具挑战性的研究课题之一，涉及神经科学、生物力学、机器人控制、人体工效学等多个领域。Swg旨在探索一种全新的软结构工程方法，在制造针对人体易受应变的部分(即下半身和核心)的人体辅助外骨骼设备时，省略了由高强度织物和薄膜制成的充气结构的完全刚性材料。这种具有驱动能力的柔软可穿戴自适应服装与其他现有方法相比提供了更高的可变刚度和力/重量比，同时完全符合每个关节的复杂运动学。正因为如此，新的设计方法可以被用作构建块，通过采用连续统机器人设计实现的灵活和协调的运动，实现对多自由度关节(如脚踝或髋关节)的完全辅助。Swg的进步将在4个不同的应用场景中展示。该项目汇集了来自5个欧盟国家和英国的13个合作伙伴。合作伙伴由在各自领域拥有非常出色记录的顶尖学者组成跨学科组合。他们得到了RTO的支持，这些RTO具有开发和验证应用程序驱动的解决方案的能力，以及两个旨在领导利用SWIG成果的商业合作伙伴。

Soft robotics has become one of the fastest growing fields over the last decade, and the development of technologies related to the associated modelling, sensing, actuation and control challenges has flourished as part of the field’s impetus. Soft robots have been demonstrated in diverse applications such as wearable devices, mobile or locomotive robots, as well as soft manipulators. Soft lower extremity exoskeletons (“soft wearable robotics" (SWRs)) are one of the most challenging research topics, and require multidisciplinary approaches involving diverse fields such as neuroscience, biomechanics, robot control, ergonomics and other fields. SWAG aims to explore a fundamentally new approach to engineering soft structures that omit fully rigid materials for inflatable ones made from high strength fabrics and films when manufacturing human-assistive exoskeletal devices that target strain-prone segments of the human body (i.e. lower body and core). Such soft wearable adaptive garments with actuation capabilities offer higher variable stiffness and force-to weight ratios compared to other existing methods, and simultaneously entirely conform to each joint’s intricate kinematics. Because of this, new design approaches can be used as building blocks to realise complete assistance for multi-degree-of-freedom joints, such as the ankle or hip, by adapting flexible and conforming motions achieved by continuum robot designs. SWAG’s advances will be demonstrated in 4 different application scenarios. The project brings together 13 partners from 5 EU countries and the UK. The partners consist of an interdisciplinary combination of leading academics with very strong track records in their respective fields. They are supported by RTOs with demonstrated capabilities of developing and validating application-driven solutions, as well as two commercial partners aiming to lead the exploitation of SWAG’s outcomes.