A kinematic model of a humanoid lower limb exoskeleton with pneumatic actuators.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Although it is well-established that exoskeletons as robots attached to the human body's extremities increase their strength, limited studies presented a computer and mathematical model of a human leg pneumatic exoskeleton based on anthropometric data. METHODS: By using Inertial Measurement Units a lower limb joint angles (hip, knee and ankle in sagittal plane) during walking and running were calculated. The geometric model of a human leg pneumatic exoskeleton was presented. Joint angle data acquired during experiments were used in the mathematical model. RESULTS: The position and velocity of exoskeleton actuators in each phase of the movement were calculated using the MATLAB package (Matlab_R2017b, The MathWorks Company, Novi, MI, USA). CONCLUSIONS: The obtained results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach that can be utilized to analyze the kinematics of pneumatic exoskeletons using the dedicated design process. The developed mathematical model makes it possible to determine the position of lower limb segments and exoskeleton elements. The proposed model allows for calculating the position of the human leg and actuators' characteristic points.