Energy efficient lower-limb wearable robotic devices

行走虽然对于健康的人来说很容易完成，但对于老年人或身体受损的人来说往往是一项艰巨的任务。随着我国老年人口的增加，对辅助设备的需求不断增加，以改善他们的生活质量。 长期目标是开发节能的可穿戴下肢机器人设备，用于日常生活。我的一般假设是，用户和机器人设备的能量消耗将通过有效地管理它们之间的双边机械能交换来减少。具体地，机器人设备将通过在行走期间辅助他/她的肌肉执行正功或负功来帮助用户减少能量消耗，并且机器人设备将受益于收集否则被用户浪费的能量，并因此实现减少的能量消耗。减少的能量消耗可以通过在步态周期的不同部分之间的一个关节内暂时交换机械能或通过在同一肢体的多个关节之间或跨肢体在空间上重新分配机械能来实现。目标1设计了一种可穿戴膝关节机器人设备，该设备能够在步态周期的一部分中辅助膝关节运动，并在步态周期的其他部分中收集能量。目标2开发了一种双关节可穿戴机器人设备，具有膝关节和髋关节，以允许这两个关节之间的能量交换。 目标3为可穿戴机器人智能控制提供真实的行走速度和地形估计方法。拟议研究的结果将提供辅助技术，可以直接帮助身体受损的病人康复和改善行动能力，从而提高加拿大人的生活水平和生活质量。

Walking, while easily accomplished by a healthy individual, is often a difficult task for the elderly or physically impaired. With our elderly population increasing there is a growing demand for assistive devices to improve their quality of life. The long-term goal is to develop energy efficient wearable lower-limb robotic devices for use in everyday life. My general hypothesis is that the energy consumption of the user and the robotic device will decrease by effectively managing the bilateral mechanical energy exchange between them. Specifically, the robotic device will help the user to reduce the energy consumption by assisting his/her muscles in performing positive or negative work during walking and the robotic device will benefit from harvesting energy that otherwise wasted by the user and consequently achieve reduced energy consumption. The reduced energy consumption could be achieved either by exchanging mechanical energy temporally within one joint between different portions of a gait cycle or by redistributing mechanical energy spatially between multiple joints of the same limb or across limbs. Aim 1 designs a wearable knee robotic device that is capable of assisting knee motion in one portion of a gait cycle and harvesting energy in the other portions of the gait cycle. Aim 2 develops a bi-articular wearable robotic device with a knee joint and a hip joint to allow energy exchange between these two joints. Aim 3 develops real time walking speed and terrain estimation methods for wearable robot intelligent control. The results of the proposed research will provide assistive technologies could directly help physically impaired patients in their rehabilitation and improve mobility, thus leading to improvement in the standard of living and quality of life for Canadians.