Design of an Arm Exoskeleton using an hybrid Motion-Capture and Model-Based Technique

Abstract :

The principal goal of this work is to introduce a methodology to guide the design process of a wearable haptic interface. Data acquired from a motion tracking system and a passive exoskeleton, are integrated together with the kinematic/ dynamic models of the human arm and the exoskeleton prototype. The external measurement of important markers located both on the interface and the human arm are used to fix relevant parameters of the arm and the exoskeleton models. Furthermore the trajectories recorded from the internal sensors of the interface are used to feed the kinematic models in order to reconstruct the Cartesian positions of the arm-exoskeleton coupled system. The methodology leads to a more realistic simulation with which it is possible to analyze in detail the behavior of the haptic interface; in particular how it restricts the human limb motion and workspace, which are the most relevant joints in terms of the overall system mobility, how to simplify its design without limiting the comfort for the user, how to avoid joints singularities and links-links or links-body collisions during the motion.