<p>To physically assist workers in reducing musculoskeletal strain or to develop motor skills for patients with neuromuscular disabilities, recent research has focused on Exoskeletons (Exos). Designing active Exos is challenging due to the complex human geometric structure, the human-Exoskeleton wrench interaction, the kinematic constraints, and the selection of power source characteristics. Because of the portable advantages of passive Exos, designing a passive shoulder mechanism has been studied here. The study concentrates on modeling a 3D multibody upper-limb human-Exoskeleton, developing a procedure of analyzing optimal assistive torque profiles, and optimizing the passive mechanism features for desired tasks. The optimization objective is minimizing the human joint torques. For simulating the complex closed-loop multibody dynamics, differential-algebraic equations (DAE)s of motion have been generated and solved. Three different tasks have been considered, which are common in industrial environments: object manipulation, over-head work, and static pointing. The resulting assistive Exoskeleton’s elevation joint torque profile could decrease the specific task’s human shoulder torque. Since the passive mechanism produces a specific torque for a given elevation angle, the Exoskeleton is not versatile or optimal for different dynamic tasks. We concluded that designing a passive Exoskeleton for a wide range of dynamic applications is impossible. Augmenting an actuator to the mechanism can provide the necessary adjustment torque and versatility for multiple tasks.</p>

Model-Based Design and Optimization of Passive Shoulder Exoskeletons

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2021/volume/85369

ASME 2021 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.