Comparative Study of a Vacuum Powered Upper Limb Exoskeleton

Dimitar Chakarov, Ivanka Veneva, Pavel Venev

2022

Abstract

In the present work, an exoskeleton of upper limb intended for rehabilitation and training is studied. The aim of the work is to find and evaluate an appropriate design solution that provides performance on the one hand and transparency and natural safety on the other. Therefore, a pneumatic drive is proposed and transparency of the exoskeleton is investigated, where positive pressure actuation is compared with vacuum pressure actuation. To assess transparency, the interaction force between the patient and the exoskeleton in passive mode is examined. Simulations and estimates of the interaction force between the patient and the exoskeleton as a result of exoskeleton gravity and the elastic forces from the pneumatic actuation are performed. In this case, the forces in the closed chambers of the pneumatic actuators are used to compensate for the gravitational forces. Simulations are performed with harmonic motion imposed by the patient at one joint of the exoskeleton. The interaction force at the end effector is evaluated in two cases of pneumatic actuation: at pressures higher than atmospheric pressure and at vacuum pressure. The simulation results are shown graphically. A discussion is presented as well as conclusions and directions for future work.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Chakarov D., Veneva I. and Venev P. (2022). Comparative Study of a Vacuum Powered Upper Limb Exoskeleton. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO, ISBN 978-989-758-585-2, pages 403-410. DOI: 10.5220/0011260100003271

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icinco22,
author={Dimitar Chakarov and Ivanka Veneva and Pavel Venev},
title={Comparative Study of a Vacuum Powered Upper Limb Exoskeleton},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO,},
year={2022},
pages={403-410},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011260100003271},
isbn={978-989-758-585-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 1: ICINCO,
TI - Comparative Study of a Vacuum Powered Upper Limb Exoskeleton
SN - 978-989-758-585-2
AU - Chakarov D.
AU - Veneva I.
AU - Venev P.
PY - 2022
SP - 403
EP - 410
DO - 10.5220/0011260100003271