Kinematic analysis and design of a novel shoulder exoskeleton using a double parallelogram linkage

Simon Christensen, Shaoping Bai

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

69 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The design of an innovative spherical mechanism with three degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) for a shoulder joint exoskeleton is presented in this paper. The spherical mechanism is designed with a double parallelogram linkage (DPL), which connects two revolute joints to implement the motion as a spherical joint, while maintaining the remote center (RC) of rotation. The design has several new features compared to the current state-of-the-art: (1) a relative large range of motion (RoM) free of singularity, (2) high overall stiffness, (3) lightweight, and (4) compact, which make it suitable for assistive exoskeletons. In this paper, the kinematics and singularities are analyzed for the spherical mechanism and DPL. Dimensional analysis is carried out to find the design with maximum RoM. The new shoulder joint is finally designed, constructed, and integrated in a four degree-offreedom wearable upper-body exoskeleton. A finite element analysis (FEA) study is used to assess the structural stiffness of the proposed design in comparison to the conventional 3R mechanism.

Original languageEnglish
Article number041008
JournalJournal of Mechanisms and Robotics
Volume10
Issue number4
Number of pages10
ISSN1942-4302
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2018

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