Design and control of universal test platform for lower limb assistive devices

Abstract

Robotic lower limb assistive devices are highly important tools because they are being used in rehabilitation of patients who has problems with their lower limbs or enhancing the capabilty of human such as lifting or carrying high loads. Besides, testing and evaluation of these devices accurately has vital importance. Robotic testing has many advantegeous aspects such as being able to perfom long term operations and mimic dangerous conditions such as near-fall etc. Also, collecting data from test device is easier than collecting from human. First, a conceptual exoskeleton which can perform walking (weight acceptance, push-off and swing), sit to stand and stair climbing tasks is designed. To be able to perform these tasks, springs, an actuator and engage disengage mechanism are mounted on the exoskeleton and coefficient of springs, and required power of actuator are calculated. Secondly, a test platform design is proposed. After that, a controller that is meant to mimic the hip motion (center of mass motion and hip joint) is introduced by using MATLAB-Simulink.