A mechatronic leg replica to benchmark human-exoskeleton physical interactions

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Biomechanics
• Human-Machine Interaction
• Medical Device Engineering

Background:

• Evaluating human-exoskeleton interaction necessitates human trials, posing safety risks and demanding extensive testing.
• Existing methods for assessing exoskeleton and orthosis performance are often time-consuming and raise safety concerns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a mechatronic human leg replica for quantifying physical interaction dynamics between exoskeletons and human limbs.
• To provide a safe and efficient alternative to human testing for evaluating wearable assistive devices.
• To demonstrate the replica's capability in assessing the impact of joint misalignment on force transmission.

Main Methods:

• Development of a mechatronic leg replica integrating mechanical, electronic, and sensory systems with custom software.
• Utilizing the leg replica to test interactions with an active full leg exoskeleton and a passive knee orthosis.
• Conducting experiments to analyze force transmission under aligned and misaligned joint conditions.

Main Results:

• The mechatronic leg replica successfully quantified physical interaction forces during tests with both active and passive devices.
• Higher interaction forces were consistently detected in misaligned joint scenarios compared to aligned ones.
• Consistent force measurements across multiple cycles indicate high reproducibility, validating the replica's potential as a standard test method.

Conclusions:

• The mechatronic leg replica offers a safe, reproducible, and efficient method for evaluating human-exoskeleton and human-orthosis physical interactions.
• This technology facilitates the assessment of device performance and the impact of factors like joint misalignment.
• The developed replica serves as a valuable tool for advancing research and development in wearable assistive technologies.