Design of Exoskeleton for Paraplegics Walking – Humanoid Robotics Approach

Abstract

Paraplegics are a type of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) disabled persons who need walking support for day-to-day mobility. Stability is a major concern while designing walking support systems. This research is an attempt to design an Exoskeleton with necessary walking stability based on humanoid bipedal robot. A parallel-serial chain of 25 joint axes legs-only exoskeleton named Lower Extremity Exoskeleton Robot (LEE Robot) is modeled and simulated for walking stability using posture adjustment and the law of balance techniques. It includes PD controllers for posture adjustment and walking balance. Zero Moment Point (ZMP) technique is implemented in the simulation to test the Exoskeleton walking stability.