We present the design and evaluation of a multi-articular soft exosuit that is portable, fully autonomous, and provides assistive torques to the wearer at the ankle and hip during walking. Traditional rigid exoskeletons can be challenging to perfectly align with a wearer's biological joints and can have large inertias, which can lead to the wearer altering their natural motion patterns. Exosuits, in comparison, use textiles to create tensile forces over the body in parallel with the muscles, enabling them to be light and not restrict the wearer's kinematics. We describe the biologically inspired design and function of our exosuit, including a simplified model of the suit's architecture and its interaction with the body. A key feature of the exosuit is that it can generate forces passively due to the body's motion, similar to the body's ligaments and tendons. These passively generated forces can be supplemented by actively contracting Bowden cables using geared electric motors, to create peak forces in the suit of up to 200 N. We define the suit-human series stiffness as an important parameter in the design of the exosuit and measure it on several subjects, and we perform human subjects testing to determine the biomechanical and physiological effects of the suit. Results from a five-subject study showed a minimal effect on gait kinematics and an average best-case metabolic reduction of 6.4%, comparing suit worn unpowered versus powered, during loaded walking with 34.6 kg of carried mass including the exosuit and actuators 2.0 kg on both legs, 10.1 kg total.

A biologically inspired soft exosuit for walking assistance

This paper reports on the position and force control of pneumatic artificial muscles reinforced by straight glass fibers. This type of artificial muscle has a greater contraction ratio and power and a longer lifetime than conventional McKibben types. However, these muscles are highly non-linear; hence, it is difficult to use them in a mechanical system. Furthermore, this actuator has a high compliance characteristic. Though this characteristic is useful for human interactions, the position and force of this actuator cannot be easily controlled. In this paper, a mathematical model of this type of artificial muscle is proposed, and the relationship between design parameters and control specifications is realized. In addition, the position and force based on the mathematical model are determined and applied to artificial muscle linearization.

http://vigir.missouri.edu/~gdesouza/Research/Conference_CDs/IEEE_ICRA_2007/data/papers/0131.pdf

Position and Force Control Based on Mathematical Models of Pneumatic Artificial Muscles Reinforced by Straight Glass Fibers

A \"muscle suit\" that provides muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed as a wearable robot. The lack of a metal frame and use of McKibben artificial muscle allow the muscle suit to be lightweight, making it realistic to use in daily life. To overcome the basic concept of the muscle suit, the new structure with the mechanical joints and plastic frame is applied. Although, human's range of motion was not fulfilled by the new structure muscle suit, all seven upper limb motions were realized and range of motion might be enough for daily use.

Realization of all 7 motions for the upper limb by a muscle suit

Muscle Suit Development and Factory Application

We have been developing the wearable muscle suit for direct and physical motion supports. The use of the McKibben artificial muscle has opened the way to the introduction of “muscle suits” compact, lightweight, reliable, wearable “assist-bots” enabling manual worker to lift and carry weights. Since back pain is the most serious problem for manual worker, improvement of the back support muscle suit under the feasibility study and quantitative estimation are shown in this paper. The structure of the upper body frame, the method to attach to the body, and the axes addition were explained as for the improvement. In the experiments, we investigated quantitative performance results and efficiency of the back support muscle suit in terms of vertical lifting of heavy weights by employing integral electromyography (IEMG). The results indicated that the values of IEMG were reduced by about 40% by using the muscle suit.

Improvement and quantitative performance estimation of the back support muscle suit

New Robot Technology Concept Applicable to Human Physical Support – The Concept and Possibility of the Muscle Suit (Wearable Muscular Support Apparatus) –

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New Robot Technology Concept Applicable to Human Physical Support – The Concept and Possibility of the Muscle Suit (Wearable Muscular Support Apparatus) –