Design of A Lower Limb Exoskeleton Driven by Tendon-sheath Artificial Muscle*

Abstract

In the past decades, with the development of science and technology, lower limb exoskeletons have been developed quickly, which can help patients to walk or do rehabilitation training. In this paper, the design of a lower limb exoskeleton, named SEU-EXO, will be presented in detail. The SEU-EXO is driven by a new type of artificial muscle, which actuated by a motor and tendon-sheath system based on Hill muscle model. In this structure, with a controllable clamper, a series spring and a parallel spring, this artificial muscle can mimics muscle’s characteristics, and has better compliance and controllability. Based on the principle of bionics, the degrees of freedom for rehabilitation exoskeleton are allocated reasonably, the mechanical structure is presented, and the tendon-sheath transmission path optimization method is studied. Finally, the evaluation experiments are verified, which proves the reliability and stability of the SEU-EXO.