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Design and Evaluation of a Soft Assistive Lower Limb Exoskeleton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2019

Christian Di Natali ,
Tommaso Poliero ,
Matteo Sposito ,
Eveline Graf ,
Christoph Bauer ,
Carole Pauli ,
Eliza Bottenberg ,
Adam De Eyto ,
Leonard O’Sullivan  and
Andrés F. Hidalgo
...Show all authors
Christian Di Natali*
Affiliation:
Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy E-mails: tommaso.poliero@iit.it, matteo.sposito@iit.it, darwin.caldwell@iit.it, jesus.ortiz@iit.it
Tommaso Poliero
Affiliation:
Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy E-mails: tommaso.poliero@iit.it, matteo.sposito@iit.it, darwin.caldwell@iit.it, jesus.ortiz@iit.it Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
Matteo Sposito
Affiliation:
Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy E-mails: tommaso.poliero@iit.it, matteo.sposito@iit.it, darwin.caldwell@iit.it, jesus.ortiz@iit.it
Eveline Graf
Affiliation:
Institute of Physiotherapy, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland E-mails: grav@zhaw.ch, bauc@zhaw.ch, carole.pauli@zhaw.ch
Christoph Bauer
Affiliation:
Institute of Physiotherapy, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland E-mails: grav@zhaw.ch, bauc@zhaw.ch, carole.pauli@zhaw.ch
Carole Pauli
Affiliation:
Institute of Physiotherapy, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland E-mails: grav@zhaw.ch, bauc@zhaw.ch, carole.pauli@zhaw.ch
Eliza Bottenberg
Affiliation:
Smart Functional Materials Research Group, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Enschede, The Netherlands. E-mail: e.bottenberg@saxion.nl
Adam De Eyto
Affiliation:
Design Factors Group, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland. E-mails: adam.deeyto@ul.ie, leonard.osullivan@ul.ie
Leonard O’Sullivan
Affiliation:
Design Factors Group, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland. E-mails: adam.deeyto@ul.ie, leonard.osullivan@ul.ie
Andrés F. Hidalgo
Affiliation:
Centre for Automation and Robotics Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain. E-mail: af.hidalgo@csic.es
Daniel Scherly
Affiliation:
Institute of Mechatronic Systems, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland. E-mails: scey@zhaw.ch, stdl@zhaw.ch
Konrad S. Stadler
Affiliation:
Institute of Mechatronic Systems, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland. E-mails: scey@zhaw.ch, stdl@zhaw.ch
Darwin G. Caldwell
Affiliation:
Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy E-mails: tommaso.poliero@iit.it, matteo.sposito@iit.it, darwin.caldwell@iit.it, jesus.ortiz@iit.it
Jesús Ortiz
Affiliation:
Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy E-mails: tommaso.poliero@iit.it, matteo.sposito@iit.it, darwin.caldwell@iit.it, jesus.ortiz@iit.it
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: christian.dinatali@iit.it
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Summary

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Wearable devices are fast evolving to address mobility and autonomy needs of elderly people who would benefit from physical assistance. Recent developments in soft robotics provide important opportunities to develop soft exoskeletons (also called exosuits) to enable both physical assistance and improved usability and acceptance for users. The XoSoft EU project has developed a modular soft lower limb exoskeleton to assist people with low mobility impairments. In this paper, we present the design of a soft modular lower limb exoskeleton to improve person’s mobility, contributing to independence and enhancing quality of life. The novelty of this work is the integration of quasi-passive elements in a soft exoskeleton. The exoskeleton provides mechanical assistance for subjects with low mobility impairments reducing energy requirements between 10% and 20%. Investigation of different control strategies based on gait segmentation and actuation elements is presented. A first hip–knee unilateral prototype is described, developed, and its performance assessed on a post-stroke patient for straight walking. The study presents an analysis of the human–exoskeleton energy patterns by way of the task-based biological power generation. The resultant assistance, in terms of power, was 10.9% ± 2.2% for hip actuation and 9.3% ± 3.5% for knee actuation. The control strategy improved the gait and postural patterns by increasing joint angles and foot clearance at specific phases of the walking cycle.

Keywords

Soft exoskeletonExosuitRobotic wearable deviceQuasi-passive actuationLegged locomotionGait assistance
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 37 , Special Issue 12: Wearable Robotics: Dynamics, Control and Applications , December 2019 , pp. 2014 - 2034
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - SA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is included and the original work is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use.
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

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