Journal
SMART MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES
Volume 26, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1361-665X/aa8343
Keywords
wearable exoskeleton suit; motion assistance; actuator; magneto-rheological brake; torsion spring; energy efficiency
Funding
- Innovation and Technology Commission [ITS/296/14]
- Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [CUHK 14201615]
- CUHK T Stone Robotics Institute [4930762]
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In this paper, an innovative actuator named magneto-rheological series elastic actuator (MRSEA) is designed for the knee joints of a lower extremity exoskeleton CUHK-EXO. MRSEA is designed to reduce the mechanical impedance of the exoskeleton and filter out unwanted collisions. It can also provide large controllable braking torque with low power, and hence improve the system energy efficiency. A description of CUHK-EXO developed to help paraplegic patients regain the mobility to stand up, sit down and walk is firstly introduced, followed by the mechanical design of MRSEA and simulation of the torsion spring pack (TSP) and magneto-rheological (MR) brake of MRSEA. Prototype of MRSEA is fabricated. Preliminary tests are performed to investigate the characteristics of the TSP and MR brake, and walking experiments with a paraplegic patient are performed to evaluate the performance of MRSEA. Experimental results of MRSEA match the modeling and simulation. As compared with the electric motor, the energy efficiency of the innovative MRSEA is improved by 52.8% during a gait cycle.
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