System Design and Experimental Research of Cable-driven Hip Joint Power-assisted Exoskeleton

There are many studies on the wearable exoskeleton to help patients with lower extremities walk now. However, the wearable exoskeleton has many problems, such as a complex system, heavy structure, and high rigidity. To solve these problems, a hip joint power-assisted exoskeleton system driven by cable is designed in this paper, and its auxiliary effect is evaluated. Based on the equipment in the laboratory, the walking experiments were carried out under three conditions: no exoskeleton, exoskeleton opening and closing, and the effects of different experimental conditions on human joint angle, carbon dioxide exhalation and sEMG were analyzed. The experiment shows that the maximum angle difference of hip and knee with and without exoskeleton is 3.2° and 6.1° respectively. The average carbon dioxide content in the exhaled gas decreased by 3.5%. The RMS values of the inferior gauze tail muscle and the quadriceps femoris muscle decreased by 51.40% and 42.55%, respectively. Comprehensive analysis shows that the relative motion deviation of human-robot is small, human muscle consumption is significantly reduced, and the exoskeleton plays a good auxiliary role in human walking.