A Light-weight Exoskeleton for Hip Flexion-extension Assistance

Abstract

Wearable robots can represent a way to rehabilitate and/or assist people affected by gait disorders that are common problems associated with ageing, following orthopedic surgery or diseases like brain injuries. In order to improve their usability and effectiveness, exoskeletons aiming at assisting people affected by gait impairments should be light-weight devices and have safe and low output impedance actuators. In this paper we present a light-weight exoskeleton endowed with two series elastic actuators for hip flexion-extension assistance.