Design of a Novel Wearable Power-assist Exoskeleton Device

In recent years, rehabilitation devices have been developed for those people with weak limbs to perform neural impairment training after stroke or assist activities of daily living. However, most of those rehabilitation systems are extremely bulky and expensive. This paper presents a novel portable power-assist exoskeleton device which can be worn by the users. Due to the light-weight and compact structure, the wearable design allows the user to carry the proposed device on the user's shoulder. Besides, 5 passive degrees of freedom (DOFs) guaranteed the wearer's range of movements and ensured a desired kinematic compatibility with different users. In addition, there is an active DOF in the elbow joint to support the subject's elbow movements, which could assist stroke patients to recover their motor function. The proposed exoskeleton device could assist wearers to perform elbow flexion and extension movement training via cable-driven. The characteristic of the proposed power-assist exoskeleton was evaluated on a male subject. The results showed the designed exoskeleton device could complete power-assist task successfully.