Abstract
A novel unpowered load-carrying parallel lower extremity exoskeleton is proposed. It is aimed at enhancing the load-bearing ability of the operator. Firstly, the structure of the novel exoskeleton is depicted in the second section; meanwhile, the degree of freedom concerning the exoskeleton is gotten by analyzing the number of links and the kinematic joints. Secondly, the forward position analysis of the exoskeleton for the swing leg is obtained. Using the expressions concerning the joints of knee and angle, the workspace of the swing leg in supporting gait circle is analyzed by the software of MATLAB. Thirdly, according to the schematic diagram of the mechanism, the static force analysis of the supporting leg for the exoskeleton is obtained. Finally, the static force of the supporting leg of the person who is not wearing the unpowered exoskeleton is gotten. Meanwhile, the genetic algorithm is used to get the optimum stiffness of the spring for energy-restoring device. By comparing the changes of force and torque for the supporting leg who is not wearing it and the skeleton which is worn by a person, some conclusions are carried out.
Highlights
The load-carrying lower limb powered exoskeleton (LLPE) is a human-machine system
A novel ULLPE is the focus of the current trend in the research community, and various forms of LLPE have been presented
According to formulas (2)-(14), we can see that, for the proposed ULLPE in this paper, the forward position analyses of the mechanism can be calculated directly though analytical method; the location of the joints for the knee and ankle, which is enormously significant for doing some research in workspace, can be obtained
Summary
The load-carrying lower limb powered exoskeleton (LLPE) is a human-machine system. It can follow the human movement and provide assistance for people who carry many. In 1960, the first human exoskeleton (Hardiman) was developed by general motors and mainly used for easing the fatigue of soldiers in USA It has a heavy body, a large volume, and only a single powered arm. The new design fully used the energy of human muscle storage and walking and promoted the development of unpowered exoskeletons. Dai proposed a unified inverse dynamics model of a metamorphic parallel mechanism with pure rotation and pure translation phases; their work mainly gives good optimal design and control of the mechanism designed by them in various applications using two phases Besides these exoskeletons mentioned above, some other exoskeleton architectures can be found in the literature [11,12,13,14,15].
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