Evaluation Framework for Passive Assistive Device Based on Humanoid Experiments

This study presents an enhanced framework for evaluating an assistive effect generated by a passive assistive device using a humanoid robot. The humanoid robotic experiments can evaluate wearable devices by measuring the joint torque, which cannot be measured directly from the human body. In this paper, we introduce an "assistive torque estimation map" as an efficient means for estimating the supportive torque within the range of motions by interpolating the measured joint torques and joint angles of the robot. This map aims to estimate the supportive torques for complex motions without conducting humanoid experiments or human-subject experiments with these motions. We generated an estimation map for an actual assistive suit that decreases the load on the lumbar region and we veri fied the vallidity of the proposed method by experimentation. In addition, the geometric simulation model of the assistive suit was validated based on the proposed experiments by using the humanoid robot HRP-4. The proposed framework is expected to lead to an efficient design of such assistive devices so that fewer human-subject experiments need to be conducted