Proceedings on Automation in Medical Engineering
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2020): Proc AUTOMED

Rehabilitation technology, ID 021

Preliminary test of a zero-torque controlled exoskeleton on a treadmill

Main Article Content

Lukas Bergmann (Lehrstuhl für Medizinische Informationstechnik, RWTH Aachen), Lin Liu , Bernhard Penzlin , Steffen Leonhardt , Chuong Ngo 

Abstract

Variable stiffness actuators help to guarantee a safe human interaction when it is used as the active joints in lower-limb exoskeletons. Therefore, we designed a unilateral exoskeleton consisting of a mechanical-rotary variable impedance actuator (MeRIA) assisting the human knee. In this paper, a first walking trial with a healthy, human subject has been carried out on a treadmill to validate the mechanical performance of the actuator. Even though the implemented zero-torque controller does not yet actively strengthen the human subject, the preliminary test shows that the exoskeleton can follow the human motion while providing a low impedance and thus a patient-cooperative behavior during walking.

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