Designing the mechanical frame of an active exoskeleton for gait assistance

Pina, Daniel Sá; Fernandes, A. A.; Jorge, R.M. Natal; Gabriel, Joaquim

doi:10.1177/1687814017743664

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…31 Aluminum 6061 has been used for the development of a robotic gait exoskeleton. 32 With the advances in 3D printing technology, polymeric composites have increasingly been utilized for the development of exoskeleton robots. Carbon polymeric composite is lighter in weight than aluminum and might be a promising design choice but sometimes it is more difficult to create the desired shape from it as compared to metals.…”

Section: Manufacturing Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exoskeleton robots for lower limb assistance: A review of materials, actuation, and manufacturing methods

Hussain

Goecke

Mohammadian

2021

Proc Inst Mech Eng H

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The field of robot-assisted physical rehabilitation and robotics technology for providing support to the elderly population is rapidly evolving. Lower limb robot aided rehabilitation and assistive technology have been a focus for the engineering community during the last three decades as several robotic lower limb exoskeletons have been proposed in the literature as well as some being commercially available. Numerous manufacturing techniques and materials have been developed for lower limb exoskeletons during the last two decades, resulting in the design of a variety of robot exoskeletons for gait assistance for elderly and disabled people. One of the most important aspects of developing exoskeletons is the selection of the most appropriate proper material. The material selection strongly influences the overall weight and performance of the exoskeleton robot. The most suitable fabrication method for material is also an important parameter for the development of lower limb robot exoskeletons. In addition to the materials and manufacturing methods, the actuation method plays a vital role in the development of these robot exoskeletons. Even though various materials, manufacturing methods and actuators are reported in the literature for these lower limb robot exoskeletons, there are still avenues of improvement in these three domains. In this review, we have examined various lower limb robotic exoskeletons, concentrating on the three main aspects of material, manufacturing, and actuation. We have focused on the advantages and drawbacks of various materials and manufacturing practices as well as actuation methods. A discussion on future directions of research is provided for the engineering community covering the material, manufacturing and actuation methods.

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Section: Manufacturing Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exoskeleton robots for lower limb assistance: A review of materials, actuation, and manufacturing methods

Hussain

Goecke

Mohammadian

2021

Proc Inst Mech Eng H

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“…Exoskeletons can be used to target the full body, upper extremities, and lower extremities [6]. Figures 1-4 presents the different types of exoskeletons used for lower extremities, and they are classified as powered, passive, pseudo-passive, and hybrid [5,[7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Background Current Exoskeletonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bamboo Usage in Orthopedic: An Attempt to Reconcile Materials Properties with the Biomechanics of Human Walking

Carnrike¹,

Egoh²,

Reed³

et al. 2020

Int J Phys Ther Rehabil

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Background: This work is part of an ongoing study on the use of natural materials to provide low cost exoskeleton and orthopedic devices in general. An earlier work showed that fir, pine, oak and bamboo satisfied the requirements of the mid-stance of the Gait cycle which is about 10% of a person's total weight. In reality, there are eight determinants of the gait cycle and they involve pelvic rotation and tilt, in addition to foot mechanics, knee mechanics and lateral displacement of pelvis. Furthermore, during walking, the peak vertical ground reaction force can rise up to 1.2 times the body weight. Therefore, any replacement exoskeleton material is expected to withstand this amount of compressive force and the rotational torques as well as possess excellent fracture toughness. Methods:The eight determinants of the gait cycle of normal walking were analyzed with along their consideration that during walking, the peak vertical ground reaction force can rise up to 1.2 times the body weight. The materials selection process utilized the Ashby's procedure and consists of four steps, namely: translation, screening, ranking and documentation. Additional assessment of the fracture toughness and formability of the materials were carried out.Results: While all the natural materials satisfied the basic selection, process based on cost and weight, only oak and Moso bamboo fulfilled the additional requirement of strength and formability. Oak was however eliminated due to its characteristic low fracture toughness which means that it is unable to provide the weight bearing support in the stance phase. Conclusion:All the natural materials studied satisfied the cost and weight requirements for low-cost orthopedic devices. However, only Moso bamboo with its characteristic high fracture toughness and formability can comfortably replace duralumin in exoskeleton.

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“…Gait function recovery is one of the most important goals of stroke and spinal cord injury patients (Guralnik et al, 1993). The body weight support system (BWS), which supports the partial weight of a patient, helps maintain the balance of the patient (Pina et al, 2018) and can control gait training intensity with various unloading forces (Vaughan, 1996). Hence, body weight support treadmill training is widely used in gait rehabilitation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A robotic treadmill system to mimic overground walking training with body weight support

Kim

et al. 2023

Front. Neurorobot.

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IntroductionBody weight support overground walking training (BWSOWT) is widely used in gait rehabilitation. However, existing systems require large workspace, complex structure, and substantial installation cost for the actuator, which make those systems inappropriate for the clinical environment. For wide clinical use, the proposed system is based on a self-paced treadmill, and uses an optimized body weight support with frame-based two-wire mechanism.MethodThe Interactive treadmill was used to mimic overground walking. We opted the conventional DC motors to partially unload the body weight and modified pelvic type harness to allow natural pelvic motion. The performance of the proposed system on the measurement of anterior/posterior position, force control, and pelvic motion was evaluated with 8 healthy subjects during walking training.ResultsWe verified that the proposed system was the cost/space-effective and showed the more accurate anterior/posterior position than motion sensor, comparable force control performance, and natural pelvic motion.DiscussionThe proposed system is cost/space effective, and able to mimic overground walking training with body weight support. In future work, we will improve the force control performance and optimize the training protocol for wide clinical use.

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Designing the mechanical frame of an active exoskeleton for gait assistance

Cited by 8 publications

References 26 publications

Exoskeleton robots for lower limb assistance: A review of materials, actuation, and manufacturing methods

Exoskeleton robots for lower limb assistance: A review of materials, actuation, and manufacturing methods

Bamboo Usage in Orthopedic: An Attempt to Reconcile Materials Properties with the Biomechanics of Human Walking

A robotic treadmill system to mimic overground walking training with body weight support

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