New Gravity Balancing Technique and Hybrid Actuation for Spatial Serial Manipulators

Lenzo, Basilio; Frisoli, Antonio; Salsedo, F.; Bergamasco, Massimo

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-06698-1_43

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…It exhibits good kinematic compatibility with the human body with a wide range of motion, and it performs task-space force and impedance control. The Alex 2 exoskeleton [32] was developed based on a similar concept, but, unlike the Harmony exoskeleton, it uses series elastic tendon transmission, which guarantees intrinsic mechanical compliance. Hsieh et al [33] has proposed a mechanism specifically designed for shoulder rehabilitation.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High costs are associated with compact high-torque actuation [42,43]. (which often includes expensive harmonic drive reduction stages), cable-driven systems [32] (which require high-precision manufacturing), commercial force sensors [44] and high-performance RTOS solutions (which usually require high computational resources to execute hard real-time processes at suitable control frequencies) [45], [46]. For reference, the average cost for a complete upper-limb exoskeleton with five-six actuated joints is in the order of USD 130,000 [47].…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Affordable Upper-Limb Exoskeleton Concept for Rehabilitation Applications

et al. 2022

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In recent decades, many researchers have focused on the design and development of exoskeletons. Several strategies have been proposed to develop increasingly more efficient and biomimetic mechanisms. However, existing exoskeletons tend to be expensive and only available for a few people. This paper introduces a new gravity-balanced upper-limb exoskeleton suited for rehabilitation applications and designed with the main objective of reducing the cost of the components and materials. Regarding mechanics, the proposed design significantly reduces the motor torque requirements, because a high cost is usually associated with high-torque actuation. Regarding the electronics, we aim to exploit the microprocessor peripherals to obtain parallel and real-time execution of communication and control tasks without relying on expensive RTOSs. Regarding sensing, we avoid the use of expensive force sensors. Advanced control and rehabilitation features are implemented, and an intuitive user interface is developed. To experimentally validate the functionality of the proposed exoskeleton, a rehabilitation exercise in the form of a pick-and-place task is considered. Experimentally, peak torques are reduced by 89% for the shoulder and by 84% for the elbow.

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Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Affordable Upper-Limb Exoskeleton Concept for Rehabilitation Applications

et al. 2022

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“…In most spring-based designs, springs are assumed to have zero free length, i.e., to exert a force proportional to their length, rather than to the displacement with respect to a neutral position. While zero-free length springs do not physically exist, there are interesting solutions to mimic such a behavior with real springs [13][14][15][16]. Another practical aspect of gravity balancing is the need for auxiliary links.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ref. [18] shows how to achieve static balancing without auxiliary links if the manipulator has a limited number of degrees of freedom. Interestingly, Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passive Gravity Balancing with a Self-Regulating Mechanism for Variable Payload

2021

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Gravity balancing techniques allow for the reduction of energy consumptions in robotic systems. With the appropriate arrangements, often including springs, the overall potential energy of a manipulator can be made configuration-independent, achieving an indifferent equilibrium for any position. On the other hand, such arrangements lose their effectiveness when some of the system parameters change, including the mass. This paper proposes a method to accommodate different payloads for a mechanism with a single degree-of-freedom (DOF). By means of an auxiliary mechanism including a slider, pulleys and a counterweight, the attachment point of a spring is automatically regulated so as to maintain the system in indifferent equilibrium regardless of the position, even when the overall mass of the system varies. Practical implications for the design of the mechanism are also discussed. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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“…Hybrid solutions, i.e. passive systems that are also able to slowly vary the intensity and direction of the weight compensation force, have been also investigated [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trackhold: A Novel Passive Arm-Support Device

Lenzo

Fontana

Marcheschi

et al. 2015

Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics

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This article introduces the design and the experimental validation of the Trackhold, a novel mechanical motion-tracker for upper limb physical rehabilitation. The Trackhold is based on a passively balanced mechanism that can approximately relieve the weight of the patient’s arm regardless of the position. The system features a novel kinematic architecture with large workspace and custom developed joint sensors providing accurate real-time measure of the upper limb posture. The design approach of the device, which went through kinetostatic and dynamic analyses, is presented and details on the employed mechatronic solutions are provided. A prototype of the Trackhold has been fabricated and functionally validated

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New Gravity Balancing Technique and Hybrid Actuation for Spatial Serial Manipulators

Cited by 3 publications

References 15 publications

An Affordable Upper-Limb Exoskeleton Concept for Rehabilitation Applications

An Affordable Upper-Limb Exoskeleton Concept for Rehabilitation Applications

Passive Gravity Balancing with a Self-Regulating Mechanism for Variable Payload

Trackhold: A Novel Passive Arm-Support Device

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