Optimization of design parameters and improvement of human comfort conditions in an upper-limb exosuit for assistance

Abstract

Exoskeleton robots have wide application in industrial field as well as for patients with locomotor disability. Among them, the exoskeleton with flexible structure, named exosuit has aroused great interest among researchers. They are usually made of soft material like cables and fabrics. Since there are no rigid frames and links in the Exosuits, they are much lighter and have less misalignment problems than the rigid exoskeletons. However, the physical human-robot interaction still remains a problem in the Exosuit design. Excessive pressure exerted by cables on soft tissues and skeleton of the human will lead to discomfort or even injuries. Besides, as assistive device, Exosuits are usually worn by users over a long period of time, which requires high energy efficiency. In this paper, based on these considerations, a multi-objective optimization approach based on swarm intelligence has been developped and applied in order to improve the physical human-robot interaction and energy efficiency performance of an upper-limb Exosuit for assistance. The optimization results have demonstrated its effectiveness in the design phase.