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Kinematic validation of a lower limb exoeskeleton using computer simulation

Abstract:

The following article shows the validation of the mechanical design of a lower limb exoskeleton that will give gait support. System was designed based on anthropometrics and human biomechanics characteristics of a specific population, in this case the city of Cuenca - Ecuador, having a configurable dimension range that allows the possibility for user's better adaptation. The exoskeleton offers active assistance on sagittal plane for hip and knee articulations, meanwhile, provides passive tracing of movement on longitudinal and frontal planes for ankle and hip articulations, reaching twelve degrees of freedom. A gait pattern was experimentally characterized for a study group, obtaining trajectory curves of leg articulations, these curves were numerical validated with the cited studies. Having defined the gait pattern that must be developed by the exoskeleton, a kinematic analysis was made in order to verify system capability to execute all the movements on required ranges without restrict users gait cycle. Using diverse engineering software, a comparison between the pattern curves and the ones generated on proposed design simulation was developed, presenting similarity percentages above 90%, added to mechanical analysis of the system allows to validate the proposed design.