WEARABLE ROBOTS

GROUP : 12
SUPERVISOR : MADAM SINNIRA
Name: 1) MUHAMMAD TAQRIZ SIRHAN BIN
ARIFIN
2)SYAMIM AMANI BIN AHMAD FAUZI
3)ENGKU MOHD FIRDAUS BIN ENGKU
ALAM

Department of Mechatronics, Kulliyyah of Engineering
International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
INTRODUCTIONS

What is wearable robots?
A wearable robot is a machine that facilitates
telepresence , a sophisticated form of interactive remote
control. It allows a human operator to control a
humanoid robot , also known as an android.
The control unit consists of a suit that the operator
wears
Sights, sounds, and tactile effects sensed by the robot
are imparted to the wearer by means of transducers
Main objective in developing wearable robots is to assist
or increase humans ability (example strength).

APPLICATIONS OF WEARABLE
ROBOT IN MODERN LIFE
A)Exoskeleton Bionic Suits







It is a battery-powered, bionic device that is strapped over the users
clothing. When equipped with the assistive device, walking can be
achieved by a FORWARD LATERAL WEIGHT SHIFT TO INITIATE
A STEP. BATTERY-POWERED MOTORS DRIVE THE LEGS AND
REPLACE NEURO-MUSCULAR FUNCTION.
HOW IT WORKS?







MSS(muscular stiffness sensor)
EMG(electromyogram)
HAL(
SEA(series elastic actuator)
Compliant Actuator:
AwAS(adjustable stiffness actuator) and EHA(electo-hydrostatic actuator)
Limitations and design issues
The early development of exoskeleton, the suit can
typically facilitate walking for individuals especially to
those suffered from spinal cord injury
Only provides functional based rehabilitation, gait
training, and upright, weight bearing exercise under the
supervision of a medical professional.
Unable to follow the human motion
instantaneously(must interpret first)
Stiff joints hamper the transitions between the phase of
motion

RoboWear (exeskeleton developed by
NT,Research Inc)
Upper limb helps to uplifts heavy object(force multiplier)
Lower limb can move, squat, stand up, conserve pose
Lower limb has 4 DOF
How To Improvise Design Issue?
Use torsional springs which is the spiral springs instead
of the helical spring .Why?
The spiral spring is used in the actuator system while the
joint encoder and MSS are both use to measure n
estimate the motion of the user precisely.
Why MSS is chose instead of EMG?
Use MSS to measure the users fatigue
The performance of these designs were being tested
through an experiment which is standing-up and
squatting with and without exoskeleton
1. Torque is generated when the motor
wind/unwind the spiral springs.
2. Generated torque transmits to the pelvis and
knee joints of the exoskeleton
3. Encoder and MSS measure the user motions.
Question
Briefly explain the mechanism when the user in
squatting motion and standing up motion.
If the user is in stationary but feels fatigue, do the
motor will stop and causing the spiral spring to
unwind?

Experiments of Squatting and Standing
Up wearing RoboWear
What are the mechanism
involve?
RoboWears working principle is govern by the
measurement of the muscles stiffness which is
detected by the MSS(muscles stiffness sensor)
Encoders is used to detect the motion of the
robot once the user move thus initiate the robot
to propel forward.
How can we activate the robot even when the
user does not move considering that her fatigue
starts to accumulate?












Solutions
EMG(electromyogram) can be use and it is the most popular choice
to measure muscle activity.
However MSS(muscle stiffness sensor) is the most recommended
due to reasons of less cost and more convenient for the user.
The positions of MSS(muscle stiffness sensor) on the thigh muscles
are represented by the blue dots in the figure
Which muscle is the most suitable to be used
as indicator to determine the users
fatigueness level?
Biceps fermoris activated when a human
enduring heavy loads
Those muscles which indicated by the blue
dots activated when a human squats
These muscles also generate torque for
maintaining position and lifting the body
Therefore the sensor information from the
biceps fermoris can be a good indicator to
mark the fatigueness level
Introduction
The main causes of physical disabilities in hands are
C5 and C6 spinal cord injuries(SCIs) and stroke.
These patients have good movement from shoulder
to wrist, but no hand movement at all.

Due to nearby fingers, having robot joints on the side
of the fingers are not possible.
To resolve this problem, many robots decided to put
joints and link frames on the backside of the hand.
Due to these transmission links at the back of
the hand, robots get bulky and hard to wear.
Instead of joint and linkage actuation
mechanism, joint-less robots with pneumatic
actuation mechanism and tendon drive
mechanism have been developed.

Now we have new problem that is size.
These pneumatic system needs more space
and not compact with the size of the hand.
Joint-less robotic hand with tendon drive mechanism
is one solution.

To have actuation in this mechanism, wire has to be
fastened in both distal and proximal part of the
joint(to control wire length)

To fulfill the compactness criteria of the wearable
robotic hand, SNU Exo-Glove with glove and joint-
less tendon drive mechanism has been developed.
SNU Exo-Glove
Still, we got problem on fingertip force
and fingertip direction.
Then, due to flexibility of glove, actuating
wire causes deformation of glove and rigid
models become impracticable.

solution
To overcome these problems, improving the
non linearity of the SNU Exo-Glove is the best
solution.
The model has been built to estimate the
actuated wire length with wire tension for
certain metacarpophalangeal(MCP) joint
angle in flexion.
Plus, tendon anchoring(TA support) is mention
to increasing the fingertips transmission force
and reducing the nonlinearity.
SNU Exo-Gloves problems
First is the finger attachment point
movement due to the compliance of the
skin.
Second is palm Velcro strap movement
due to the deformation of the glove.
Third is TA Support movement due to the
skin compliance.
The last is wire elongation.
Assumption to this model
Several assumption has to be made for
modelling. That is :
First, friction is negligible.
Second, TA Support can move only in one
direction.
Third, Velcro straps are assumed to be
point.

Experiment has been conducted to see the
relationship between the wire tension and
actuated wire length for fixed MCP angle.
To maintain constant MCP angle while
actuating index finger, palm has been fixed
to test bed.
While experiment was running, wire tension
and actuated wire length was recorded by
LabVIEW and two camcorders placed in two
different angles were recording the
movement of nonlinear factors of the robot
for motion tracking.
Result of the experiment
legends
Blue : actual actuated wire length from test
Red : total estimated wired length from model
Black : TA Support movement
cyan : wire attachment point movement
magenta : wire path change by
palm pulley movement (taken from motion tracking)
Green : wire elongation(calculated by wire tensile
test results)
Red : sum of four different nonlinearity factors,black,
cyan, green and magenta.
By the fact that red dots are following
blue dots well, we presume that
modeling fits the actual system well.



Result in figure 2 shows that the red dots,
estimation by using MCP joint flexion
model, tends to follow blue dots, actual
result from the test, well.
This result verifies the feasibility of the
model and this model will be expended to
PIP and DIP joint in future to complete
finger flexion model in tendon driven
wearable robotic hand.
HYBRID ASSISTIVE LIMB(HAL) ROBOT

a type of wearable robot that is designed to assist the
movement of those patients who have physical disability
an exoskeleton robot
for those who suffered from hemiplegia

WHAT IS HEMIPLEGIA?
a type of paralysis that occurs at the arm, leg,
and torso on the same side of the body caused by the
damage at certain part of the brain or might be resulted
from illness, injury or stroke

LOWER LIMB PART OF HAL

power unit
main controller
setup unit
sensors



HAL CONTROL DESIGN

CYBERNIC VOLUNTARY CONTROL
CYBERNIC AUTONOMOUS CONTROL
-using phase sequence method


PHASE SEQUENCE METHOD

Divided into 3 stages:
Conclusions
Basically, these advancements of the technology in the
wearable robots/exoskeleton field have been booming in
the past 5years.
These exoskeleton have the potential to be life-altering.
We once looked at these as being the future, except
now it turns out that the future is approaching much
more rapidly that than we had expected.
Within the next 5-10 years we could possibly see these
exoskeletons out on the battlefield helping ,as well as,
protecting our soldiers.
Further down the road we could also see robotic
sugeons in operating rooms being controlled by
surgeons in another room.
But most likely, even sooner than both of
those options, is the potential to see these
exoskeletons helping the disabled as well
as people with degenerative deseases.
The potential for this technology seems
endless and the effects it will have on the
human race will be monumental.