Abstract
In this research, we proposed a lower-limb soft exoskeleton for providing assistive forces to patients with muscle weakness during the preswing phase of a gait cycle. Whereas conventional soft exoskeletons employ two motors to assist each leg individually, we designed a single motor for actuation. Our design assists hip flexion for light weights and prevents some slip problems that can arise from rotary motors. The actuation mechanism was based on a pulley system that converted the power supplied by the single motor into linear reciprocating motions of a slider. When the single motor rotated, the slider moved linearly, first in one direction and then in the opposite direction. The slider pulled knee braces through cables with an assistive force of 100 N. The actuation was triggered when the system detected that the backward swing of the wearer's thigh had ended. A prototype was designed, fabricated, and examined with 7 subjects (average age, 24). Subjects were measured while they wore our exoskeleton in power-off and power-on modes. Comparisons proved that wearing the exoskeleton caused a negligible deviation of gait, and that the soft exoskeleton could reduce metabolic cost during walking. The research results are expected to be beneficial for lightweight soft exoskeletons and integration with exosuits that provide assistive forces through the wearer's entire gait.
Highlights
Robotic rigid exoskeletons are commonly used for various applications, including action assistance, augmentation, and rehabilitation
The negative values represented that energy was conserved due to the assistance provided by the exoskeleton, and the positive values presented that energy consumption occurred when loads were carried. These results demonstrated that the metabolic rate could be reduced further due to the assistive forces provided by our device while walking, indicating that the proposed soft exoskeleton can conserve energy when the wearer walks
A compact lower-limb soft exoskeleton was presented in this study for providing hip flexion assistance to walking wearers with low muscle strength
Summary
Robotic rigid exoskeletons are commonly used for various applications, including action assistance, augmentation, and rehabilitation. Various portable rigid exoskeletons have been developed; impaired patients wear these to regain functional abilities. Gear-based portable rigid exoskeletons can enhance the strength of healthy wearers for conducting heavy-weight tasks, such as carrying loads [8] and heavy lifting [9, 10], or to conduct long-term activities that require stamina, such as walking [11] and driving [12]. A disadvantage of rigid exoskeletons is that they are heavy and require undesired metabolic expenditures [14]; they usually impose kinematic constraints when the wearer tries to walk [15]. Few rigid exoskeletons can achieve metabolic reduction for problems such as angle assistance [16], regardless of whether they are worn for tethered or stationary activities [17]
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