Control of a Biomimetic "Soft-actuated" 10DoF Lower Body Exoskeleton

Abstract

The successful motor rehabilitation of stroke, traumatic brain/spinal cord/sport injured patients requires a highly intensive and task-specific therapy based approach. Significant budget, time and logistic constraints limits a direct hand-to-hand therapy approach, so that intelligent assistive machines may offer a solution to promote motor recovery and obtain a better understanding of human motor control. This paper will address the development of a lower limb exoskeleton legs for force augmentation and active assistive walking training. The twin wearable legs are powered by pneumatic muscle actuators (pMAs), an experimental low mass high power to weight and volume actuation system. In addition, the pMA being pneumatic produces a more natural muscle like contact and as such can be considered a soft and biomimetic actuation system. This capacity to "replicate" the function of natural muscle and inherent safety is extremely important when working in close proximity to humans. The integration of the components sections and testing of the performance will also be considered to show how the structure and actuators can be combined to produce the various systems needed for a highly flexible/low weight clinically viable rehabilitation exoskeleton