Numerical simulation of a leg exoskeleton for human motion assistance

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to validate the design of a leg exoskeleton used to aid persons with neuromotor disorders rehabilitation. The proposed design of the leg exoskeleton was performed in two stages. The first stage comprises the motion capture of 30 test subjects under normal walking conditions. An equipment for motion capture was used for this task, namely VICON. By using the obtained experimental data, a numerical simulation was computed in second stage for validating the leg exoskeleton proposed design. Finally, the results obtained from leg exoskeleton proposed design will allow improving rehabilitation therapies by reproducing different normal walking trajectories. The proposed solution shows a new mechanism design that combines capture motion data for synthesizing sprocket-mechanisms. The research also presents a new methodology to evaluate the design of a low-cost leg exoskeleton.