Modern conflicts demand substantial physical and psychological exertion,often resulting in fatigue and diminished combat or operational readiness.Several exoskeletons have been developed recently to address these chal...Modern conflicts demand substantial physical and psychological exertion,often resulting in fatigue and diminished combat or operational readiness.Several exoskeletons have been developed recently to address these challenges,presenting various limitations that affect their operational or everyday usability.This article evaluates the performance of a dual-purpose passive ankle exoskeleton developed for the reduction of metabolic costs during walking,seeking to identify a force element that could be applied to the target population.Based on the 6-min walk test,twenty-nine subjects participated in the study using three different force elements.The results indicate that it is possible to reduce metabolic expenditure while using the developed exoskeleton.Additionally,the comfort and range of motion results verify the exoskeleton's suitability for use in uneven terrain and during extended periods.Nevertheless,the choice of the force element should be tailored to each user,and the control system should be adjustable to optimise the exoskeleton's performance.展开更多
Lower-limb assisted exoskeletons are widely researched for movement assistance or rehabilitation training.Due to advantages of compliance with human body and lightweight,some cable-driven prototypes have been develope...Lower-limb assisted exoskeletons are widely researched for movement assistance or rehabilitation training.Due to advantages of compliance with human body and lightweight,some cable-driven prototypes have been developed,but most of these can assist only unidirectional movement.In this paper we present an untethered cable-driven ankle exoskeleton that can achieve plantarflexion-dorsiflexion bidirectional motion bilaterally using a pair of single motors.The main weights of the exoskeleton,i.e.,the motors,power supplement units,and control units,were placed close to the proximity of the human body,i.e.,the waist,to reduce the redundant rotation inertia which would apply on the wearer’s leg.A cable force transmission system based on gear-pulley assemblies was designed to transfer the power from the motor to the end-effector effectively.A cable self-tension device on the power output unit was designed to tension the cable during walking.The gait detection system based on a foot pressure sensor and an inertial measurement unit(IMU)could identify the gait cycle and gait states efficiently.To validate the power output performance of the exoskeleton,a torque tracking experiment was conducted.When the subject was wearing the exoskeleton with power on,the muscle activity of the soleus was reduced by 5.2%compared to the state without wearing the exoskeleton.This preliminarily verifies the positive assistance effect of our exoskeleton.The study in this paper demonstrates the promising application of a lightweight cable-driven exoskeleton on human motion augmentation or rehabilitation.展开更多
This paper is concerned with a control method for an exoskeleton ankle with electromyography （EMG） signals. The EMG signals of human ankle and the exoskeleton ankle are introduced. Then a control method is proposed ...This paper is concerned with a control method for an exoskeleton ankle with electromyography （EMG） signals. The EMG signals of human ankle and the exoskeleton ankle are introduced. Then a control method is proposed to control the exoskeleton ankle using the EMG signals. The feed-forward neural network model applied here is composed of four layers and uses the back-propagation training algorithm. The output signals from neural network are processed by the wavelet transform. Finally the control orders generated from the output signals are passed to the motor controller and drive the exoskeleton to move. Through experiments, the equality of neural network prediction of ankle movement is evaluated by giving the correlation coefficient. It is shown from the experimental results that the proposed method can accurately control the movement of ankle joint.展开更多
基金the Portuguese Army,through CINAMIL,within project ELITE2-Enhancement LITe ExoskeletonFoundation for Science and Technology (FCT),through IDMEC,under LAETA,project UIDB/50022/2020 for supporting this research。
文摘Modern conflicts demand substantial physical and psychological exertion,often resulting in fatigue and diminished combat or operational readiness.Several exoskeletons have been developed recently to address these challenges,presenting various limitations that affect their operational or everyday usability.This article evaluates the performance of a dual-purpose passive ankle exoskeleton developed for the reduction of metabolic costs during walking,seeking to identify a force element that could be applied to the target population.Based on the 6-min walk test,twenty-nine subjects participated in the study using three different force elements.The results indicate that it is possible to reduce metabolic expenditure while using the developed exoskeleton.Additionally,the comfort and range of motion results verify the exoskeleton's suitability for use in uneven terrain and during extended periods.Nevertheless,the choice of the force element should be tailored to each user,and the control system should be adjustable to optimise the exoskeleton's performance.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61703023)Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation,China(No.3184054)+1 种基金China Scholarship Council(No.201706025021)National Undergraduate Training Programs for Innovation and Entrepreneurship(No.201910006118)。
文摘Lower-limb assisted exoskeletons are widely researched for movement assistance or rehabilitation training.Due to advantages of compliance with human body and lightweight,some cable-driven prototypes have been developed,but most of these can assist only unidirectional movement.In this paper we present an untethered cable-driven ankle exoskeleton that can achieve plantarflexion-dorsiflexion bidirectional motion bilaterally using a pair of single motors.The main weights of the exoskeleton,i.e.,the motors,power supplement units,and control units,were placed close to the proximity of the human body,i.e.,the waist,to reduce the redundant rotation inertia which would apply on the wearer’s leg.A cable force transmission system based on gear-pulley assemblies was designed to transfer the power from the motor to the end-effector effectively.A cable self-tension device on the power output unit was designed to tension the cable during walking.The gait detection system based on a foot pressure sensor and an inertial measurement unit(IMU)could identify the gait cycle and gait states efficiently.To validate the power output performance of the exoskeleton,a torque tracking experiment was conducted.When the subject was wearing the exoskeleton with power on,the muscle activity of the soleus was reduced by 5.2%compared to the state without wearing the exoskeleton.This preliminarily verifies the positive assistance effect of our exoskeleton.The study in this paper demonstrates the promising application of a lightweight cable-driven exoskeleton on human motion augmentation or rehabilitation.
基金supported by the National High-Tech R&D Program (Grant No.2006AA04Z224)the Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (Grant No.08ZZ48)the Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (Grant No.Y0102)
文摘This paper is concerned with a control method for an exoskeleton ankle with electromyography （EMG） signals. The EMG signals of human ankle and the exoskeleton ankle are introduced. Then a control method is proposed to control the exoskeleton ankle using the EMG signals. The feed-forward neural network model applied here is composed of four layers and uses the back-propagation training algorithm. The output signals from neural network are processed by the wavelet transform. Finally the control orders generated from the output signals are passed to the motor controller and drive the exoskeleton to move. Through experiments, the equality of neural network prediction of ankle movement is evaluated by giving the correlation coefficient. It is shown from the experimental results that the proposed method can accurately control the movement of ankle joint.
