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Ergonomics Design and Assistance Strategy of A-Suit

Concerning the biomechanics and energy consumption of the lower limbs, a soft exoskeleton for the powered plantar flexion of the ankle, named A-Suit, was developed to improve walking endurance in the lower limbs and reduce metabolic consumption. The method of ergonomics design was used based on the...

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Autores principales: Zhang, Leiyu, Gao, Xiang, Cui, Ying, Li, Jianfeng, Ge, Ruidong, Jiao, Zhenxing, Zhang, Feiran
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9316755/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35888931
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi13071114
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author Zhang, Leiyu
Gao, Xiang
Cui, Ying
Li, Jianfeng
Ge, Ruidong
Jiao, Zhenxing
Zhang, Feiran
author_facet Zhang, Leiyu
Gao, Xiang
Cui, Ying
Li, Jianfeng
Ge, Ruidong
Jiao, Zhenxing
Zhang, Feiran
author_sort Zhang, Leiyu
collection PubMed
description Concerning the biomechanics and energy consumption of the lower limbs, a soft exoskeleton for the powered plantar flexion of the ankle, named A-Suit, was developed to improve walking endurance in the lower limbs and reduce metabolic consumption. The method of ergonomics design was used based on the biological structures of the lower limbs. A profile of auxiliary forces was constructed according to the biological force of the Achilles tendon, and an iterative learning control was applied to shadow this auxiliary profile by iteratively modifying the traction displacements of drive units. During the evaluation of the performance experiments, four subjects wore the A-Suit and walked on a treadmill at different speeds and over different inclines. Average heart rate was taken as the evaluation index of metabolic consumption. When subjects walked at a moderate speed of 1.25 m/s, the average heart rate H(av) under the Power-ON condition was 7.25 ± 1.32% (mean ± SEM) and 14.40 ± 2.63% less than the condition of No-suit and Power-OFF. Meanwhile, the additional mass of A-Suit led to a maximum H(av) increase of 7.83 ± 1.44%. The overall reduction in H(av) with Power-ON over the different inclines was 6.93 ± 1.84% and 13.4 ± 1.93% compared with that of the No-Suit and Power-OFF condition. This analysis offers interesting insights into the viability of using this technology for human augmentation and assistance for medical and other purposes.
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spelling pubmed-93167552022-07-27 Ergonomics Design and Assistance Strategy of A-Suit Zhang, Leiyu Gao, Xiang Cui, Ying Li, Jianfeng Ge, Ruidong Jiao, Zhenxing Zhang, Feiran Micromachines (Basel) Article Concerning the biomechanics and energy consumption of the lower limbs, a soft exoskeleton for the powered plantar flexion of the ankle, named A-Suit, was developed to improve walking endurance in the lower limbs and reduce metabolic consumption. The method of ergonomics design was used based on the biological structures of the lower limbs. A profile of auxiliary forces was constructed according to the biological force of the Achilles tendon, and an iterative learning control was applied to shadow this auxiliary profile by iteratively modifying the traction displacements of drive units. During the evaluation of the performance experiments, four subjects wore the A-Suit and walked on a treadmill at different speeds and over different inclines. Average heart rate was taken as the evaluation index of metabolic consumption. When subjects walked at a moderate speed of 1.25 m/s, the average heart rate H(av) under the Power-ON condition was 7.25 ± 1.32% (mean ± SEM) and 14.40 ± 2.63% less than the condition of No-suit and Power-OFF. Meanwhile, the additional mass of A-Suit led to a maximum H(av) increase of 7.83 ± 1.44%. The overall reduction in H(av) with Power-ON over the different inclines was 6.93 ± 1.84% and 13.4 ± 1.93% compared with that of the No-Suit and Power-OFF condition. This analysis offers interesting insights into the viability of using this technology for human augmentation and assistance for medical and other purposes. MDPI 2022-07-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9316755/ /pubmed/35888931 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi13071114 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zhang, Leiyu
Gao, Xiang
Cui, Ying
Li, Jianfeng
Ge, Ruidong
Jiao, Zhenxing
Zhang, Feiran
Ergonomics Design and Assistance Strategy of A-Suit
title Ergonomics Design and Assistance Strategy of A-Suit
title_full Ergonomics Design and Assistance Strategy of A-Suit
title_fullStr Ergonomics Design and Assistance Strategy of A-Suit
title_full_unstemmed Ergonomics Design and Assistance Strategy of A-Suit
title_short Ergonomics Design and Assistance Strategy of A-Suit
title_sort ergonomics design and assistance strategy of a-suit
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9316755/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35888931
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi13071114
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