Design and Validation of a Cable-Driven Asymmetric Back Exosuit

Li, Jared M.; Molinaro, Dean D.; King, Andrew S.; Mazumdar, Anirban; Young, Aaron

doi:10.1109/tro.2021.3112280

Cited by 17 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…3b ), minimizing mistriggers observed with lower velocity thresholds (Table S4 ). Taking this approach may lead to controller inefficiencies, to be discussed, but it is less sensitive to slight changes in movement direction or angular displacement compared to a near-binary approach employed in other studies 23 , 24 . This feature ensures a robust delivery of assistance, avoiding rapid switching between higher and lower assistance levels during small movements under the shelf (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, active systems have demonstrated improved versatility through adaptive controllers 5,13,18 . For example, a number of controllers, which distinguish between lifting and lowering using motion-based state machines or an on/off switch, can selectively provide more assistance during lifting [23][24][25] . Other controllers have used loading information from EMG sensors or pressure gloves to scale assistance 26,27 or predict the kinematic trajectories of lifting motions and adapt the assistive force accordingly 28 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Lightweight active back exosuit reduces muscular effort during an hour-long order picking task

Chung,

Quirk,

Applegate

et al. 2024

Commun Eng

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Occupational back exoskeletons and exosuits aim to reduce low back injuries in the workplace. For these technologies to be adopted, it is important that they provide biomechanical benefits to the wearer and do not disrupt job performance. To address this challenge, here we developed a lightweight, soft, active back exosuit that can autonomously control virtual impedance to apply differing assistance during lowering and lifting. In usability tests, participants rated the exosuit as easy to learn and use and reported feeling confident while wearing it. In an experiment involving an hour-long order picking task we demonstrated that the exosuit reduced peak and median muscle activations in the back by 18% and 20%, respectively. Despite the complexity of the movements required, such as walking, bending, and navigating around obstacles while lifting boxes from under a rack, our controller demonstrated impressive robustness with only 14 mistriggers out of 9600 lifts (0.1%). The results of this research suggest that active exosuit technology has the potential to be a highly usable solution to aid warehouse workers in real-world settings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightweight active back exosuit reduces muscular effort during an hour-long order picking task

Chung,

Quirk,

Applegate

et al. 2024

Commun Eng

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Furthermore, the prototype in [ 111 ] relied on the combination of a hyper-redundant continuum mechanism and tethered cable-driven platform to support the waist without restricting natural movements. ABX [ 112 ] applied two Bowden cables with an “X” pattern to provide torque for multiple DoFs of the lumbosacral joint. Its control system containing a finite state machine and force controller was responsible for state pattern detection, cable tension update, motor velocity calculation and so on.…”

Section: Overview Of Exosuitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Wearable Robots: Development Status and Technical Challenges

Shi

Dong

Lin

et al. 2022

Sensors

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In recent years, more and more research has begun to focus on the flexible and lightweight design of wearable robots. During this process, many novel concepts and achievements have been continuously made and shown to the public, while new problems have emerged at the same time, which need to be solved. In this paper, we give an overview of the development status of soft wearable robots for human movement assistance. On the basis of a clear definition, we perform a system classification according to the target assisted joint and attempt to describe the overall prototype design level in related fields. Additionally, it is necessary to sort out the latest research progress of key technologies such as structure, actuation, control and evaluation, thereby analyzing the design ideas and basic characteristics of them. Finally, we discuss the possible application fields, and propose the main challenges of this valuable research direction.

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“…In [27]- [29], portable cable-driven back-support exoskeletons were developed to assist symmetric trunk flexion and extension (TFE) motion. In [30], Li et al designed a cabledriven back exosuit to provide assistance for both symmetric and asymmetric TFE motion. Based on the cable-driven actuation system, these back-support exoskeletons achieved a flexible exoskeleton design to interact with wearers' trunk via soft structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It effectively enlarges the moment arm of the transmitted cable force and reduces the force parallel to the wearer's trunk, enhancing the assistance output efficiency both mechanically and biomechanically. 2) The CSEA system enhances cable-driven actuation with SEA advantages compared to the actuation systems in [26]- [28], [30] and operates with multiple statuses to overcome torque output limitations of SEA mentioned in [11], [12] and [29], realizing a flexible and compliant back-support exoskeleton actuation with a large assistance output capability. 3) A unified torque controller is designed and validated to ensure a stable, continuous, and accurate torque control for the actuation system with operation status transitioning between SEA status and CSA status like the proposed CSEA system, which cannot be directly achieved by the existing force controllers for CSAs or SEAs with fixed or variable stiffness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design, Control, and Validation of a Novel Cable-Driven Series Elastic Actuation System for a Flexible and Portable Back-Support Exoskeleton

Liao,

Chan,

Liu

et al. 2024

IEEE Trans. Robot.

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Various active back-support exoskeletons have been developed to assist manual materials handling work for low back injury prevention. Existing back-support exoskeleton actuation either suffers from rigid transmission structure, or fails to efficiently generate assistance via portable actuation system with flexible transmissions. In this paper, a novel cable-driven series elastic actuation (CSEA) system is proposed to realize a flexible and portable back-support exoskeleton design with safe, efficient, and sufficient assistive torque output capability. The CSEA system realizes a flexible actuation based on cable transmission for an ergonomic human-exoskeleton interaction. Based on a torsion spring-support beam mechanism, it achieves an efficient assistance output capability to prevent high cable force demand and resultant lumbar compression, assuring a safe and synergistic operation for flexible exoskeleton actuation. Meanwhile, this mechanism enables the CSEA system to integrate series elastic actuator (SEA) with cable transmission and operates with multiple statuses to leverage SEA advantages and to overcome its torque output limitation. Dynamic model is established for the CSEA system, and a unified torque controller is designed for stable, continuous, and accurate torque control of the CSEA system despite its discontinuous dynamics during operation status transition. The efficacy of the closed-loop CSEA system to enable an ergonomic and efficient back-support exoskeleton actuation with the capability of accurately delivering desired level of assistance is verified via bench tests and human tests. Results verified that the CSEA system actuated exoskeleton can effectively reduce activity of relevant muscles during trunk flexion and extension motions compared to no exoskeleton case, validating successful application of the CSEA system on the exoskeleton for an effective back support effect.

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Design and Validation of a Cable-Driven Asymmetric Back Exosuit

Cited by 17 publications

References 59 publications

Lightweight active back exosuit reduces muscular effort during an hour-long order picking task

Lightweight active back exosuit reduces muscular effort during an hour-long order picking task

Soft Wearable Robots: Development Status and Technical Challenges

Design, Control, and Validation of a Novel Cable-Driven Series Elastic Actuation System for a Flexible and Portable Back-Support Exoskeleton

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