Flexible soft exoskeletons, so-called exosuits, are robotic devices that interact with their users to assist or enhance muscle performance. Their lightweight design and lack of rigid parts allow assisting the user's natural motion without any constraints. They are thereby valuable in carrying out daily labour tasks and performing active stances of rehabilitation. Nonetheless, the usage of these devices in long-term applications demands anatomically adaptive designs and mechanisms to tackle textile artefacts and discrepancies in the human constitution. The soft exoskeleton described in this article is a textile-wearable design that assists shoulder and elbow flexion. The cable-driven actuation is embedded in a jacket by using several textiles and deformable parts. The inconveniences of using textile such as slipping, dampening, and pressure sores are tackled by combining textile layers with force-compliant sewing. The design also includes pieces for cable guidance, anchoring and support. These parts employ different tailoring methods so as to ease fabrication, wearing and cleaning. The motors and electronics, whose design is compatible with textiles too, are placed in a backpack. This configuration reduces forces from loads in motion and weight on the arm. Finally, the last part of the document discusses the preliminary results that have been obtained from four subjects who have worn the device. ; This work was supported in part by the ‘‘Exoesqueleto Ligero para la Generación de Fuerzas en las Extremidades Superiores Aplicado a Tareas de Rehabilitación (ExoFlex)’’ Project funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad under Grant DPI-2015-68842-R, and in part by the ‘‘Lightweight Upper Limbs eXosuit for BImanual Task Enhancement/Exoesqueleto Ligero del Tren Superior para Ayuda a Tareas Bimanuales (LUXBIT)’’ funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades under Grant RTI2018-094346-BI00. ; Peer reviewed
A Cable-Driven Exosuit for Upper Limb Flexion Based on Fibres Compliance
2020-09-01
2169-3536
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
NTRS
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