Pulley Based Hip Assistance Module for Soft Wearable Robots

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel Multi Pulley Module(MPM) for soft wearable robots that assist the standing and walking of patients. Compared to previous approach of soft wearable robots, MPM is adaptable to various gait patterns. Robots equipped with MPM provide a more versatile assistance in that their dynamic models can easily be altered. Users can get customized assistance according to their gait pattern by simply attaching and detaching pulleys. For the verification of the performance, a pilot study was conducted which investigated the effect of the hip flexion/abduction assistance for a static pose of the subject. By comparing the electromyogram with surface elctromyography(sEMG), it was shown that MPM effectively reduces the activation of target muscles by 35%, 14.2%, respectively. This preliminary study demonstrates that MPM can help multiple patients while greatly reducing the effort of part replacement.