11.04.2018
Musculoskeletal disorders and orthopaedic injuries on the knee joint is common. Knee exoskeletons can assist patients with weakened knee muscles in daily activities. Current passive and quasi-passive exoskeletons are limited in certain activities due to the characteristic of the mechanism. The versatility of the device needs to be improved to be more practical.
A novel quasi-passive exoskeleton is proposed to unload the knee joint and provide auxiliary forces in daily activities. The exoskeleton is based on the spring/damper mechanical behaviour of a unique brake-cable mechanism. The spring behaviour is used in level walking and the damper behaviour is used in walking downstairs and sitting. Inertia Measurement Units (IMUs), load cells and an intelligent gait phase detection algorithm are used for the control of exoskeleton. The prototype was tested with healthy subjects to measure the output auxiliary torque to the user’s knee in level walking, sitting and walking downstairs.
Personnel - Mr Godfrey Keung (PhD)
