Design Considerations of a Lower Limb Exoskeleton System to Assist walking and Load-Carrying of Infantry Soldiers

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a wearable exoskeleton system for the lower extremities of infantry soldiers and proposes appropriate design criteria based on existing case studies. Because infantry soldiers carry a variety of equipment, the interference with existing equipment and additional burden of the exoskeleton support system should be minimized. Recent studies have shown that a user only needs to be supported in the gravitational direction when walking on flat terrain; however, active joints are necessary to support walking over rough and sloped terrain such as mountains. Thus, an underactuated exoskeleton system was considered: passive joints are applied to the hip and ankle joints, and active joints are applied to the knee joints to exploit the dynamic coupling effect of the link structure and muscular activation patterns when the user is going up and down stairs. A prototype of the exoskeleton system was developed and validated through a simple stair-climbing experiment.

Misalignment Compensation for Full Human-Exoskeleton Kinematic Compatibility: State of the Art and Evaluation

“…Ideally, an exoskeleton reduces energy consumption of the user during movement. This goal is shared mostly by lower limb exoskeletons [15,16]. Despite this common goal, only a limited number of devices have successfully reduced the energy consumption of their users [12,13,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Nonanthropomorphic exoskeleton with legs based on eight-bar linkages

“…Later, new applications were given to exoskeletons that included protection and armor for handling radioactive or hazardous materials and the rehabilitation of seriously injured elbows and knees. 3,4 As an assistive technology, exoskeletons found revolutionary applications concerning human quality of life. Scientific research efforts have focused on the rehabilitation of the lower extremities 5 and in recent years, researchers have been looking for ways to assist people that have suffered various degrees of lower limb mobility loss.…”

Bilateral, Misalignment-Compensating, Full-DOF Hip Exoskeleton: Design and Kinematic Validation

“…Exoskeletons are usually divided in three classes depending on their aimed use: performance augmentation, rehabilitation, and assistance [ 1 , 2 ]. A shared design goal for most robotic lower limb exoskeletons is to reduce the metabolic cost of locomotion for the user [ 3 , 4 ]. Despite this common goal, only a limited amount of devices was able to reduce the metabolic consumption of the user during powered walking [ 5 ].…”