Abstract
Stand–sit–stand (STS) motions are the most frequently performed activities of everyday life and require extensive movement of knee joint. People suffering from knee joint disorders face difficulties in performing this motion. The compact knee exoskeleton (KE) has proven to be a viable, less complex, and cheaper alternative to the available entire lower-, upper-, and full-body exoskeletons. With growing number of technical glitches and finite battery life problems, there exist risks of sudden failure of the actuator of KE that could be detrimental for the vulnerable users. To overcome this problem, there is a need to accommodate a backup actuator in KE which can continue providing assistance during movement if the primary actuator ceases to function. This article provides a performance comparison of a four-bar mechanism-driven KE that can accommodate both the linear and the rotary actuators. The modelling and simulation of the system are performed using the bond graph (BG) technique. The results successfully showed that both actuators offered desired ranges of motions needed for STS motion. Furthermore, the knee joint torques developed by the linear and rotary actuators were found to be 40 Nm and 57 Nm, respectively, which corresponds to 60% and 85% of the total torque required by the knee joint to perform STS motions, thereby reducing the user effort to 40% and 15%, respectively. Thus, both actuators are self-capable to provide necessary assistance at the knee joint even if the primary actuator ceases to work due to a sudden fault, the secondary actuator will provide the required rotation of the thigh link and will continue to deliver the assistive torque. The article also effectively shows the application of BG approach to model the multidisciplinary systems like KE as it conveniently models the system containing various elements in different energy domains.
Highlights
Knee joint is the most complex and stressed joint in the human body and, is most susceptible to injuries
The knee exoskeleton (KE) actuated by linear and rotary actuators are simulated for the STS in a specialized bond graph (BG) simulation software Symbols Shakti
Different external loads weight of the exoskeleton (Wexo), (Wexo þ 20 N), (Wexo þ 40 N), and (Wexo þ 60 N) are added at point 7 of the KEs to check the efficacy of the current design to meet the minimum and maximum torques requirement for the STS motion, where, Wexo 1⁄4 28.86 N is the weight of exoskeleton and additional weight with Wexo is the effective weight of the upper part of the user wearing KE
Summary
Knee joint is the most complex and stressed joint in the human body and, is most susceptible to injuries. Based on the above literature survey and to the best of authors’ knowledge, no literature has been found regarding performance comparison between linear and rotary actuators based on their ability to provide assistive torque at the knee joint during STS motions of four-bar mechanism.
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