Upper Extremity Power Assist Robot @ Toyota Technological Institute (TTI) Japan

Preliminary experimental results on our upper body power assist suit. It includes videos from Friction Compensation, Gravity Compensation, Active Compliance Adjustment and Power Augmentation. (Toyota Technological Institute, Japan, 2011)

The outline:

1) Without friction and gravity compensation: Basically we wanted to show the friction effect on the robot when nothing is compensated. The operator leaves the arm, it moves then stop due to the inherent friction.

2) With only friction: Having identified the friction, we compensate it via feedforward torques. The robot arm moves as if there is no friction.

3) With both gravity and friction compensation: On top of the friction compensation, we added gravity compensation to counterbalance its own weight. Regardless of the joint states the robot arm balances itself.

4) Low Damping Low Stiffness: Active compliance adjustment. THe elbow joint stiffness is set for low damping and low stiffness values.

5) High Damping Low Stiffness: Active compliance adjustment. THe elbow joint stiffness is set for high damping and low stiffness values. (It damps the oscillation quickly)


6) High Damping High Stiffness: Active compliance adjustment. THe elbow joint stiffness is set for high damping and high stiffness values. (the joint doesn't move due to high stiffness)

7) Power augmentation Scene - 1: A human wearer (Japanese, female, slightly below the size of a Standard Japanese female) aged 23 and BMI 19.3 upholds a 5 kg dumbbell. She almost feels nothing according to EMG and IEMG data. She repeats the experiment without wearing the exoskeleton.

8) 7) Power augmentation Scene - 2: The same human wearer (Japanese, female, slightly below the size of a Standard Japanese female) aged 23 and BMI 19.3 lifts up&down a 5 kg dumbbell. She almost feels nothing according to EMG and IEMG data. She repeats the experiment without wearing the exoskeleton.

These results are published in article. We will put the link of this article soon.

All constructive critics/comments are welcome.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Exoskeleton
• Power Assist Robot
• Toyota
• Technological
• Institute
• TTI
• Japan