Design of a 6 DOF Cable-Driven Upper Limb Exoskeleton

Abstract

To provide post-stroke patients with rehabilitation training, this paper presents a six degrees of freedom (DOF) cable-driven upper limb exoskeleton, where 3 active DOF, 1 active DOF, and 2 passive DOF are given to the shoulder, elbow, and wrist, respectively. Carbon fiber materials are mainly used to consist of the frame of the prototype, achieving the lightness and compactness design. Cable-driven series elastic actuators are used to minimize the inertia and complexity of the exoskeleton’s joints and provide compliant actuation, resulting in better human-robot interaction. A double parallelogram mechanism is designed to transfer rotation from a remote center to the glenohumeral joint. To evaluate the performance of the prototype, PID controllers are designed to conduct position tracking and torque tracking experiments in the elbow joint. The experimental results show that the prototype has a good tracking performance and is capable to assist patients in rehabilitation training.