Augmentative Exoskeletons (AE) are wearable orthotic devices coupled with healthy individual to enhance endurance, speed, and strength during various biomechanical activities. The AE finds its usage in military scenarios and industrial applications.
Based on their conformance with human joints, different configurations of joint mechanisms and links combine to form an exoskeletal architecture that generally falls into one of the following three categories: anthropomorphic, non-anthropomorphic and pseudo-anthropomorphic architecture. These exoskeletons can be powered or passive, in conjunction with the upper extremity, lower extremity or the complete body of the individual. The design and development of exoskeletons encounter many challenges such as ergonomics, architectural design, synchronous Human Machine Interaction (HMI) and kinematic compatibility. The kinematic configuration of the exoskeleton structure plays a critical role in ensuring optimum HMI for augmentation.
The objective of this work has been to design and develop an AE to transfer the backpack load to the ground during walking. A prerequisite for such a design is to configure an optimal kinematic configuration of the exoskeleton system. This talk will focus on a simulation-based framework to obtain the best combination of Degrees of Freedom (DoF) at the hip, knee, and ankle joints of the exoskeleton when coupled with an individual.
Kinematic data of an individual during walking was recorded using a field deployable kinematic measurement system and subsequently processed in a musculoskeletal simulation platform. Different configurations of the exoskeleton system were virtually modelled and integrated with the virtual human model and analysed. Subsequently a physical exoskeleton system was realised with an optimal kinematic configuration. An experiment was performed to obtain the kinematic data of the human and exoskeleton simultaneously and the same has been validated with simulation results.
Kinematic alignment is a prerequisite in the design of AE for effective Human-Machine interfaces to achieve the intended function.