Design and Fabrication of Lower Body Exoskeleton

Abstract

Exoskeletons are defined as standalone anthropomorphic active mechanical devices that are worn by an operator and work in concert with the operator"s movements. Exoskeletons are mainly used to increase performance of able-bodied wearer, and to help disabled people to retrieve some motion abilities. The idea of this study is to develop a portable device capable of providing knee-joint mechanical assistance during walking without using external power from onboard actuators (i.e. an "energy-neutral" solution).We hypothesized that a passive wearable device using pneumatic damper during walking cycle which is capable of recycling a significant portion of knee joint mechanical work and could reduce the metabolic activity of walking. The constructional goals and features of each and every components used have been considered for its light weight, durability, portable framework without motors or an external energy source to provide an ease in gait cycle. We set out to develop a passive "energy neutral" system with following key design objectives: 1. Provide support to the knee joint following a pattern similar to the normal joint moment during walking. 2. Recycle damping energy provided by the pneumatic damper during the gait cycle.