Design of Tendon Driven SEASeries Elastic Actuator based on Bio-mechanical Gait Analysis for a Soft Exo-Suit

Abstract

Recently, much research has been done on exoskeleton type wearable robots. However, these systems are difficult to match the joint rotation axis of the exoskeleton and the human. The exoskeleton is less than the DOF of a human, and the mass and inertia of a mechanism with a rigid body affects the balance during a human’s walking. These make the wearer feel a sense of difference. In this study, we designed and manufactured an SETA(Series Elastic Tendon Actuator) module for a soft exo-suit. The design specifications of the system were derived through bio-mechanical gait analysis. It was designed to have similar compliance to human muscles and can be used to measure the human-robot interaction by attaching an encoder to the module. For future work, we will research a force control method based on human-robot interaction force, and we plan to develop a soft-exo suit system that will assist the muscles of elderly pedestrians.