Hip joint assisted exoskeleton robot with adaptive adjustment of joint center of rotation

Abstract

A hip joint auxiliary exoskeleton robot for adaptively adjusting the rotation center of a joint comprises a power and control module, a center-variable driving module, an adaptive adjustment module and a binding module, the power and control module, the center-variable driving module, the adaptive adjustment module and the binding module are symmetrically installed, the binding module comprises a waist binding module and a thigh binding module, the center-variable driving module is rigidly connected with the power and control module through a space connecting piece, a spring fixing seat and a variable center pulley in the center-variable driving module are fixed with the waist binding module and the thigh binding module respectively, the adaptive adjustment module is connected with the power and control module through a shear type adaptive connecting rod and a cylindrical sliding block, and a waist base in the adaptive adjustment module is centrally installed on a waist arc binding piece in the waist binding module. The adaptive adjustment joint rotation center has good assisting effect, high comfort, high portability and good economy.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The application belongs to the field of rehabilitation exoskeletons, and particularly relates to a portable hip joint assisting exoskeleton. BACKGROUND

[0002] In today's society, the phenomenon of population aging is gradually serious, and with the improvement of people's living standards and the increasing demand for the quality of life, the two diseases of sarcopenia and myasthenia gravis are attracting more and more attention. When sarcopenia and myasthenia gravis involve the lower limbs, it will cause the patient's lower limb muscle strength to decrease, the muscle mass to be poor, and the patient to be unable to fully exert force, resulting in difficulty and instability in walking, and even it is very difficult or even impossible to complete the basic actions such as daily walking, going up and down stairs and uphill. The portable lower limb exoskeleton can provide assistance for patients in various scenes in daily life.

[0003] The hip joint is an important joint connecting the upper torso and lower limbs of the human body, and is one of the indispensable joints for human daily activities such as walking. During the assisting process, frequent interaction will occur between the hip joint assisting exoskeleton and the human body, so the compliance of the action and the comfort of the wearing are very important to the patient. In the gait movement of the human body, the position of the center of rotation of the hip joint is not always fixed, but will move within a certain range in the sagittal plane. However, most of the existing designs of hip joint assisting exoskeletons do not take this into account, and in the actual assisting process, the problem of misalignment between the center of rotation of the hip joint exoskeleton and the center of the human hip joint will occur, which not only reduces the comfort of the patient's wearing, but also affects the assisting effect and wastes part of the active assisting energy. For example, the existing patent CN114227650B proposes a "hip joint assisting exoskeleton", which can solve the problem of insufficient energy utilization of the hip joint assisting exoskeleton assisting structure, but the lower limb exoskeleton hip joint rotation center of the invention can only rotate around a fixed point, ignoring the energy waste caused by the misalignment of the hip joint rotation center, and reducing the comfort of the patient's wearing. In addition, the invention also uses pneumatic muscles to pull the Bowden cable, and the pneumatic muscles have good compliance, but are expensive, and need to be inflated by a gas pump during use, which is not suitable for daily portable use by ordinary family patients.

[0004] In summary, it has certain practical value and practical research significance to design a hip joint assisting exoskeleton robot with good assisting effect, high comfort, high portability and good economy. SUMMARY

[0005] In order to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art, the application provides a hip joint auxiliary exoskeleton robot with good assistance effect, high comfort, high portability and good economy, which can automatically align the exoskeleton hip joint center with the human hip joint center during the assistance process, improve the patient wearing comfort, reduce energy consumption and improve the assistance efficiency.

[0006] The application adopts the technical solution of:

[0007] The hip joint auxiliary exoskeleton robot for adaptively adjusting the joint rotation center comprises a power and control module, a center-changing driving module, an adaptive adjustment module and a binding module, and the power and control module, the center-changing driving module, the adaptive adjustment module and the binding module are symmetrically installed; the binding module comprises a waist binding module and a thigh binding module. The center-changing driving module is rigidly connected with the power and control module through a space connecting piece, the spring fixing seat in the center-changing driving module is fixed with the waist binding module and the thigh binding module, the adaptive adjustment module is connected with the power and control module through a shear type adaptive connecting rod and a cylindrical slider, and the waist base in the adaptive adjustment module is centrally installed on the waist arc binding piece in the waist binding module;

[0008] The adaptive adjustment module comprises a waist base, a spring, a vertical slider, a shear type adaptive connecting rod, a horizontal slider, a horizontal guide rail, a rotating rod and a cylindrical slider. The spring comprises a gravity compensation spring and an adaptive adjustment spring. The waist base is provided with a spring fixing hook, and a vertical sliding groove is further arranged below the waist base. The vertical slider can slide in the vertical sliding groove. One end of the gravity compensation spring is connected with the spring fixing hook, and the other end is connected with the vertical slider, so that the vertical slider is kept at the middle position in the vertical sliding groove at the initial time. The horizontal guide rail is fixed on the vertical slider, and the horizontal slider is arranged on the horizontal guide rail and can move horizontally on the horizontal guide rail. The horizontal slider is provided with a hinge connection position. One end of the rotating rod is located at the hinge connection position of the horizontal slider, and the other end of the rotating rod is connected with a fixed hinge connection position located below the right side of the vertical sliding groove on the waist base. When the rotating rod rotates, the horizontal slider moves horizontally, and the vertical slider slides at the same time. The vertical slider is further provided with a horizontal sliding groove, and two cylindrical sliders freely slide in the horizontal sliding groove. One end of each of the two shear type adaptive connecting rods is connected with the two cylindrical sliders. The cylindrical sliders can drive the shear type adaptive connecting rods to move. The two shear type adaptive connecting rods are connected through a round pin, forming a shear type structure. The other end of the shear type adaptive connecting rod is also connected with the horizontal sliding groove on the boss on the outside of the backpack front seat through the cylindrical slider. The shear type adaptive connecting rods are connected with each other by the adaptive adjustment spring.

[0009] Further, the power and control module comprises a backpack shell, a bearing seat upper cover, a ball screw pair, a moving seat, a Bowden cable, a tension sensor, a universal ball roller, a synchronous pulley, a synchronous belt, a direct current brushless motor, an encoder, a drive control integrated board and a lithium battery. The Bowden cable comprises a steel wire rope and a Bowden cable outer sheath, the steel wire rope is movable in the Bowden cable outer sheath and is used for transmitting power, and the Bowden cable outer sheath can protect the steel wire rope. The ball screw pair is installed on the backpack front seat, and the ball screw pair comprises a ball screw and a screw nut. The direct current brushless motor is installed on the same horizontal plane in parallel with the ball screw, and the direct current brushless motor transmits power to the ball screw through the synchronous pulley and the synchronous belt. The moving seat is fixed with the screw nut, the moving seat is provided with a small hole through which the steel wire rope passes, and one end of the steel wire rope is fixed to the small hole by a wire locker. The tension sensor is connected with the steel wire rope through a head hole screw and a wire locker at both ends, and is used for measuring the tension in the steel wire rope in the movement process. Two universal ball rollers are staggered on the moving seat, the universal ball roller is threadedly connected with the moving seat, the ball is tangent to the inner bottom of the backpack shell, and rolling friction is formed. The encoder is used for measuring the position of the direct current brushless motor, converting the angle of the motor into the angle of the ball screw, indirectly measuring the movement distance of the screw nut, calculating the length change of the steel wire rope, and fixing the drive control integrated board and the lithium battery on the backpack rear cover.

[0010] Further, the variable center driving module comprises a variable center pulley, a spring, a spring fixing seat and a space connecting piece. The variable center pulley is provided with spring connecting parts on the outer side and is uniformly distributed in a circle. The spring fixing seat is provided with spring connecting parts on the inner ring and is uniformly distributed in a circle. The front end of the spring is connected to the spring connecting parts of the variable center pulley, and the rear end of the spring is connected to the spring fixing seat. The two spring connecting parts are uniformly distributed and staggered in the radial direction at a certain angle. The variable center pulley is further provided with a winding groove. One end of the steel wire rope is fixed on the variable center pulley by a screw and is wound on the winding groove to drive the variable center pulley to rotate by friction. The outer side of the variable center pulley is connected with a thigh rod by a screw, and the inner side is connected with the space connecting piece at the rotating center position. The other end of the space connecting piece is connected with the backpack. The space connecting piece is provided with a plurality of Bowden cable outer sheath fixing seats.

[0011] Preferably, the binding module comprises a waist binding module and a thigh binding module, the waist binding module comprises a waist arc binding piece, a binding belt and a plastic socket, the waist arc binding piece is divided into left and right parts and is fixed to the left and right sides of a waist base, the waist base and the waist arc binding piece are provided with adjusting holes; the binding belt and the plastic socket are located in the front of the patient, the side edge of the waist arc binding piece is provided with a threaded hole and is connected with a spring fixing seat to provide a fixed connection point for the spring in the variable center driving module; the thigh binding module comprises a thigh rod, a thigh binding piece and a plastic socket. The thigh rod is connected with the thigh binding piece through a screw, and the thigh rod is provided with adjusting holes.

[0012] The beneficial effects of the present application mainly include:

[0013] 1. The variable center driving module and the self-adaptive adjustment module jointly act to solve the problem of offset of the hip joint rotation center during the movement of the patient and improve the comfort of the patient. Since the offset amount of the hip joint rotation center of the human body is unknown, a spring fixed variable center pulley is adopted, which does not limit the movement within a certain range, so that the hip joint rotation center of the exoskeleton is aligned with the hip joint rotation center of the patient.

[0014] 2. The tensile spring in the variable center driving module has the functions of releasing energy and storing energy, actively shortens during the flexion movement of the patient, converts the elastic potential energy into the kinetic energy of the variable center pulley, reduces the energy consumption of the motor, and is elongated during the extension movement, stores the energy generated by the falling of the human leg due to gravity, slowly converts the gravitational potential energy into the elastic potential energy, recovers the energy, and also makes the process of putting the leg more stable and improves the use safety.

[0015] 3. The motor is driven, the ball screw pair is reduced, and the Bowden cable transmits force. The ball screw pair is reduced, and the lithium battery directly provides power, avoiding the defect of needing an additional power source, being high in economy, light in overall weight, simple and compact in structure, and convenient for the patient to assist in daily activities such as walking. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0016] Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the hip joint auxiliary exoskeleton robot.

[0017] Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the power and control module.

[0018] Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the self-adaptive adjustment module.

[0019] The reference signs are: 1: power and control module; 2: adaptive adjustment module; 3: backpack; 4: Bowden cable outer sheath; 5: variable center driving module; 6: space connecting piece; 7: thigh binding piece; 8: plastic socket; 9: thigh rod; 10: variable center pulley; 11: spring; 12: spring fixing seat; 13: waist arc binding piece; 14: waist base; 15: waist binding belt; 1-1: drive and control integrated board; 1-2: lithium battery; 1-3: encoder; 1-4: bearing; 1-5: tension sensor; 1-6: steel wire rope; 1-7: universal steel ball roller; 1-8: moving seat; 1-9: ball screw nut; 1-10: synchronous belt; 1-11: ball screw; 1-12: synchronous pulley; 1-13: direct current brushless motor; 2-1: horizontal sliding block; 2-2: horizontal guide rail; 2-3: rotating rod; 2-4: cylindrical sliding block; 2-5: scissor adaptive connecting rod; 2-6: adaptive adjustment spring; 2-7: vertical sliding block; 2-8: gravity compensation spring; 2-9: vertical sliding groove; 3-1: backpack back cover; 3-2: backpack front base; 3-3: bearing seat upper cover. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] The application will be further described below in combination with the drawings.

[0021] Reference Figs. 1-3 An adaptive adjustment hip joint auxiliary exoskeleton robot of hip joint rotation center, comprising a power and control module 1, a variable center driving module 5, an adaptive adjustment module 2 and a binding module, the power and control module 1, the variable center driving module 5, the adaptive adjustment module 2 and the binding module are symmetrically installed left and right;

[0022] The self-adapting adjusting module 2 comprises a waist base 14, a spring, a vertical sliding block 2-7, a shear self-adapting connecting rod 2-5, a horizontal sliding block 2-1, a horizontal guide rail 2-2, a rotating rod 2-3 and a cylindrical sliding block 2-4, the spring comprises a gravity compensation spring 2-8 and a self-adapting adjusting spring 2-6, the waist base 14 is provided with a spring fixing hook, and a vertical sliding groove 2-9 is further arranged below the waist base 14, the vertical sliding block 2-7 is slidable in the vertical sliding groove 2-9, one end of the gravity compensation spring 2-8 is connected with the spring fixing hook, and the other end is connected with the vertical sliding block 2-7, so that the vertical sliding block 2-7 is kept at the middle position in the vertical sliding groove 2-9 at the beginning, the horizontal guide rail 2-1 is fixed on the vertical sliding block 2-7, the horizontal sliding block 2-2 is arranged on the horizontal guide rail 2-1, the horizontal sliding block 2-2 is horizontally movable on the horizontal guide rail, the horizontal sliding block 2-2 is provided with a hinge connection, one end of the rotating rod 2-3 is located at the hinge connection of the horizontal sliding block, and the other end is connected with a fixed hinge connection below the vertical sliding groove 2-9 on the waist base 14, when the rotating rod 2-3 rotates, the horizontal sliding block 2-2 will move horizontally, and the vertical sliding block 2-7 will slide at the same time, the vertical sliding block 2-7 is further provided with a horizontal sliding groove, the horizontal sliding groove is provided with two cylindrical sliding blocks 2-4 which are freely slidable, one end of each of the two shear self-adapting connecting rods 2-5 is connected with the two cylindrical sliding blocks 2-4 respectively, and the cylindrical sliding blocks 2-4 can drive the shear self-adapting connecting rods 2-5 to move, the two shear self-adapting connecting rods 2-5 are connected through a round pin in the middle, forming a shear structure, the other end of the shear self-adapting connecting rod 2-5 is also connected with a horizontal sliding groove on the outer side boss of the backpack front seat 3-2 through the cylindrical sliding block 2-4, and the shear self-adapting connecting rods 2-5 are further connected with the self-adapting adjusting spring 2-6, so that the flexibility and safety of the movement of the shear self-adapting connecting rod are improved.

[0023] The power and control module 1 comprises a backpack shell, a bearing seat upper cover 3-3, a ball screw pair, a moving seat 1-8, a Bowden cable, a tension sensor 1-5, a universal steel ball roller 1-7, a synchronous pulley 1-12, a synchronous belt 1-10, a direct current brushless motor 1-13, an encoder 1-3, a drive control integrated board 1-1 and a lithium battery 1-2, the Bowden cable comprises a steel wire rope 1-6 and a Bowden cable outer sheath 4, the steel wire rope 1-6 is movable in the Bowden cable outer sheath 4 and is used for transmitting power; the backpack shell comprises two front and rear parts, in order to reduce the overall mass of the backpack, the backpack front seat 3-2 is designed and processed into an integral part with the bearing base and the motor support, the ball screw pair comprises a ball screw 1-11 and a screw nut 1-9 and is installed on the backpack front seat 3-2, the direct current brushless motor 1-13 is installed in parallel with the ball screw 1-11 on the same horizontal plane, the direct current brushless motor 1-13 transmits power to the ball screw 1-11 through the synchronous pulley 1-12 and the synchronous belt 1-10, the moving seat 1-8 is fixed with the screw nut 1-9 through screws, the moving seat 1-8 is provided with a small hole through which the steel wire rope 1-6 passes, and one end of the steel wire rope is fixed to the small hole by a wire locker; the tension sensor 1-5 is connected with the steel wire rope through the head hole screw and the wire locker at both ends, and is used for measuring the tension in the steel wire rope in the movement process; two universal ball rollers 1-7 are staggered installed on the moving seat 1-8, the universal ball roller 1-7 is threadedly connected with the moving seat 1-8, the ball is tangent to the inner bottom of the backpack shell, forming rolling friction, which is used for preventing the screw nut from turning over when moving; the encoder 1-3 is used for measuring the position of the direct current brushless motor, converting the motor rotation angle into the ball screw rotation angle, and then indirectly measuring the moving distance of the screw nut and calculating the length change of the steel wire rope; the drive control integrated board 1-1 and the lithium battery 1-2 are fixed to the backpack rear cover 3-1, and the front and rear parts of the backpack are connected through threads.

[0024] The variable center driving module comprises a variable center pulley 10, a spring 11, a spring fixing seat 12 and a space connecting piece 6, the outer side of the variable center pulley 10 has not limited to 8 spring connecting parts, which are distributed in a circle, the inner circle of the spring fixing seat 12 has not limited to 8 spring connecting parts, which are distributed in a circle, the front end of the spring 11 is connected to the spring connecting part of the variable center pulley 10, the rear end of the spring 11 is connected to the spring fixing seat 12, and the two spring connecting parts are distributed in a certain angle in the radial direction; the variable center pulley 10 is further provided with a wire groove, one end of the steel wire rope 1-6 is fixed on the variable center pulley 10 through a screw and is wound on the wire groove to drive the variable center pulley 10 to rotate through friction, the outer side of the variable center pulley 10 is connected with the thigh rod 9 through a screw, and the inner side is connected with the space connecting piece 6 at the rotating center position, the other end of the space connecting piece 6 is connected with the backpack 3, the space connecting piece 6 is provided with a plurality of Bauden rope outer sheath fixing seats to prevent unnecessary accidents caused by the unfixed Bauden rope outside, the rotation of the variable center pulley 10 will not affect the movement of the space connecting piece and will not make the space connecting piece rotate.

[0025] The variable center driving module and the self-adaptive adjusting module jointly act to self-adaptively adjust the movement of the hip joint rotation center of the exoskeleton, a plurality of springs are connected between the variable center pulley 10 and the spring fixing seat 12, a certain tension is formed in the tangential direction of the variable center pulley, and the variable center pulley can be kept in a suspended state when it is static. The variable center pulley 10 is adapted to the offset of the hip joint rotation center of the patient and is self-adaptively offset in the sagittal plane, and the offset is decomposed into vertical offset and horizontal offset. The variable center pulley 9 compensates the horizontal offset through the space connecting piece 6, the backpack 3 and the shearing type rotation of the shearing type adaptive connecting rod 2-5, and then compensates the vertical offset through the vertical sliding block 2-7, the horizontal sliding block 2-1 and the rotating rod 2-3; in reverse: the shearing type rotation of the shearing type adaptive connecting rod 2-5 drives the backpack 3 to move horizontally in the sagittal plane, the backpack 3 drives the variable center pulley 10 to move horizontally in the sagittal plane through the space connecting piece 6; at the same time, the vertical movement of the vertical sliding block 2-7 also drives the backpack 3 to move vertically, and the backpack 3 drives the variable center pulley 10 to move vertically in the sagittal plane through the space connecting piece 6.

[0026] The binding module includes a waist binding module and a thigh binding module. The waist binding module includes a waist arc binding piece 13, a binding belt 15 and a plastic socket. The waist arc binding piece 13 is divided into left and right parts and is fixed to the left and right sides of a waist base 14. The waist base 14 and the waist arc binding piece 13 are provided with adjusting holes, so that the height and width can be adjusted according to the body shape of different patients. In addition, a sponge pad is arranged between the patient and the waist arc binding piece 13 to improve the wearing comfort of the patient. The binding belt 15 and the plastic socket are located in the front of the patient to facilitate wearing. Threaded holes are arranged on the side edges of the waist arc binding piece 13 and are connected with a spring fixing seat 12 to provide a fixed connection point for the spring in the variable center driving module. The thigh binding module includes a thigh rod 9, a thigh binding piece 7 and a plastic socket 8. The thigh rod 9 is connected with the thigh binding piece 7 through a screw. The thigh rod 9 is provided with adjusting holes to adjust the height of the thigh binding piece 7 before wearing to meet the needs of patients of different heights. A sponge pad is arranged between the thigh of the patient and the thigh binding piece 7 to improve the wearing comfort of the patient.

[0027] When the patient needs to use the hip joint auxiliary exoskeleton robot for daily assisted walking, first, the waist arc binding piece 13 is adjusted to fit the waist of the human body to ensure the wearing comfort of the waist of the patient. At the same time, the center of rotation of the variable center pulley 10 is adjusted to be aligned with the center of rotation of the human hip joint. According to the height of different patients, the height of the thigh binding piece 7 is adjusted, and finally the plastic socket 8 is fixed. In the initial state, the steel wire rope has a certain pre-tightening force, and the springs 11 in the variable center driving module 5 are all in the stretched state.

[0028] When the patient is ready to walk with the leg lifting, first identify which side of the leg first flexion through the tension sensor 1-5 connected to the steel wire rope part in the Bowden cable, then control the corresponding side of the DC brushless motor 1-13 work, through the synchronous pulley 1-12 and synchronous belt 1-10, the movement is transmitted to the ball screw 1-11, the ball screw nut 1-9 drives the moving seat 1-8 connected thereto to move linearly. To prevent the moving seat 1-8 from rolling over, two universal steel ball rollers 1-7 are installed on the moving seat 1-8 by screwing, and the steel ball in the universal steel ball roller is tangent to the inner wall of the backpack front seat 3-2. The moving seat 1-8 is provided with a central small hole, which is fixed by a wire locker through the steel wire rope. On the same horizontal plane as the steel wire rope, the bearing base and the outer wall of one side of the backpack front seat 3-2 are provided with through holes for fixing the Bowden cable outer sheath 4, which is fixed on the several Bowden cable outer sheath fixing seats on the space connecting piece 6, and finally wound in the wire groove of the variable center pulley 10, and the end is fixed on the variable center pulley 10 by screw. The moving seat 1-8 pulls the steel wire rope 1-6 together to "shrink" and move, the length of the steel wire rope in the variable center pulley 10 is reduced, and the sliding friction between the steel wire rope and the variable center pulley 10 is formed when the steel wire rope moves, which drives the variable center pulley 10 to rotate "forward". The rotation of the variable center pulley 10 drives the thigh rod 9 to rotate, and finally assists the leg to complete the flexion movement. In the flexion process, the spring 11 in the variable center driving module 5 is shortened, and the elastic potential energy is converted into the kinetic energy of the variable center pulley 10, which drives the variable center pulley 10 to rotate together with the auxiliary motor 1-13. When the patient's thigh flexes to a certain height, the patient's center of gravity is ready to move forward, and the thigh enters the extension stage. The motor 1-13 is reversed, the moving direction of the ball screw nut 1-9 is changed, the steel wire rope is "lengthened", and is wound back into the wire groove of the variable center pulley 10, which drives the variable center pulley 10 to rotate "backward" slowly, and the thigh rod 9 drives the patient's thigh to extend. In the extension stage, the spring 11 in the variable center driving module 5 is lengthened again, and the gravitational potential energy of the patient's leg during landing is converted into the elastic potential energy of the spring. Through the energy conversion of the spring 11, not only the energy in the movement process can be fully utilized to reduce energy waste, but also the safety of the patient using is ensured.

[0029] In the movement of the patient walking, the position of the hip joint rotation center will have a certain amount of offset in the sagittal plane. We decompose the offset into sagittal lateral offset and vertical offset. When the offset occurs, the center of the variable center pulley 10 follows the offset of the human hip joint center, and this offset is ultimately transferred to the adaptive adjustment module 2. One end of the space connecting piece 6 is connected with the rotation center of the variable center pulley 10 through a round pin, and the other end is connected with the backpack 3-2 through a screw, and the backpack 3-2 can offset with the space connecting piece 6 and the variable center pulley 10. Two scissor adaptive connecting rods 2-5 are connected with the backpack 3-2 at one end and connected with the vertical slider 2-7 on the waist base 14 at the other end. The lateral movement of the backpack 3 in the sagittal plane can be converted into the scissor movement of the two scissor adaptive connecting rods 2-5, and the scissor adaptive connecting rods 2-5 are connected with each other through the adaptive adjustment spring 2-6, which improves the flexibility and safety of the movement; the vertical movement of the backpack 3 in the sagittal plane is converted into the movement of the vertical slider 2-7. The initial position of the vertical slider 2-7 is located in the middle of the vertical sliding groove 2-9, the upper end is hung with a gravity compensation spring 2-8, and the vertical slider 2-7 is also provided with a lateral guide rail 2-2 and a lateral slider 2-1, which assist the movement of the vertical slider 2-7 together with the rotating rod 2-3.

[0030] The hip joint auxiliary exoskeleton robot of the adaptive adjustment joint rotation center of the embodiment has simple structure, portable form, and can be used for assisting the hip joint movement of patients in various scenes such as walking on flat ground, going up and down stairs and uphill, and can be adjusted in multiple sizes in advance according to the height and body shape of different patients. Moreover, considering the problems of energy waste caused by instantaneous offset of the hip joint rotation center and poor patient wearing comfort, the variable center driving module and the adaptive adjustment module designed by the application can store the wasted energy and release it at appropriate time, improve the assistance efficiency, dynamically adjust the hip joint rotation center of the exoskeleton, improve the movement flexibility and patient wearing comfort, and meet the requirements of ergonomics.

[0031] The content described in the embodiments of the present specification is only a list of implementation forms of the inventive concept, and is only for the purpose of description. The protection scope of the present application should not be regarded as being limited to the specific forms described in the embodiments, and the protection scope of the present application also extends to equivalent technical means that can be thought of by those skilled in the art according to the inventive concept.

Claims

1. A hip joint-assisted exoskeleton robot that adaptively adjusts the joint rotation center, characterized in that, The system includes a power and control module, a center-shifting drive module, an adaptive adjustment module, and a restraint module, all of which are symmetrically installed from left to right. The restraint module includes a waist restraint module and a thigh restraint module. The center-shifting drive module is rigidly connected to the power and control module via a spatial connector. A spring-loaded base and a variable-center pulley in the center-shifting drive module are fixed to the waist restraint module and the thigh restraint module, respectively. The adaptive adjustment module is connected to the power and control module via a scissor-type adaptive linkage and a cylindrical slider. The waist base in the adaptive adjustment module is centrally mounted on the waist arc-shaped restraint piece in the waist restraint module. The adaptive adjustment module includes a waist base, a spring, a vertical slider, a scissor-type adaptive linkage, a horizontal slider, a horizontal guide rail, a rotating rod, and a cylindrical slider. The spring includes a gravity compensation spring and an adaptive adjustment spring. The waist base has a spring fixing hook and a vertical groove directly below it. The vertical slider can slide within the vertical groove. One end of the gravity compensation spring is connected to the spring fixing hook, and the other end is connected to the vertical slider, keeping the vertical slider initially in the middle position within the vertical groove. A horizontal guide rail is fixed to the vertical slider, and a horizontal slider is mounted on the horizontal guide rail, allowing the horizontal slider to move laterally. The horizontal slider has a hinge connection. One end of the rotating rod is located on the horizontal guide rail. At the hinge connection of the slider, the other end of the rotating rod is connected to the fixed hinge connection located on the lower right of the vertical slide groove on the waist base. When the rotating rod rotates, the horizontal slider will move laterally, and at the same time drive the vertical slider to slide. The vertical slider is also provided with a horizontal slide groove, in which there are two freely sliding cylindrical sliders. One end of the two scissor adaptive links is connected to the two cylindrical sliders respectively, and the cylindrical sliders can drive the scissor adaptive links to move. The two scissor adaptive links are connected by a round pin in the middle to form a scissor structure. The other end of the scissor adaptive link is also connected to the horizontal slide groove on the outer boss of the front seat of the backpack through a cylindrical slider. The scissor adaptive links are also connected to each other by adaptive adjustment springs.

2. The hip joint-assisted exoskeleton robot with adaptive adjustment of joint rotation center as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The power and control module includes a backpack shell, a bearing housing cover, a ball screw assembly, a moving base, a Bowden rope, a tension sensor, a universal ball bearing roller, a synchronous pulley, a synchronous belt, a brushless DC motor, an encoder, a drive and control integrated board, and a lithium battery. The Bowden rope includes a steel wire rope and a Bowden rope sheath. The steel wire rope can move within the Bowden rope sheath to transmit power, and the sheath protects the steel wire rope. The ball screw assembly is mounted on the front of the backpack and includes a ball screw and a screw nut. The brushless DC motor is mounted parallel to the ball screw on the same horizontal plane, and transmits power to the ball screw via a synchronous pulley and a synchronous belt. The moving base and... The lead screw nut is fixed by screws. The moving base has a small hole through which a steel wire rope can pass. One end of the steel wire rope is fixed to the small hole with a wire locking device. Both ends of the tension sensor are connected to the steel wire rope through screws with holes at the head and wire locking devices, and are used to measure the tension inside the steel wire rope during movement. Two universal ball bearing rollers are staggered on the moving base. The universal ball bearing rollers are threaded to the moving base. The balls are tangential to the bottom of the backpack shell, forming rolling friction. The encoder is used to measure the position rotated by the DC brushless motor, convert the angle rotated by the motor into the angle rotated by the ball screw, and then indirectly measure the distance moved by the lead screw nut to calculate the change in length of the steel wire rope. The drive and control integrated board and the lithium battery are fixed to the back cover of the backpack.

3. The hip joint-assisted exoskeleton robot with adaptive adjustment of joint rotation center as described in claim 2, characterized in that, The variable center drive module includes a variable center pulley, a spring, a spring fixing seat, and a spatial connector. The variable center pulley has spring connection points on its outer side, evenly distributed around its circumference. The spring fixing seat also has spring connection points on its inner ring, also evenly distributed around its circumference. The front end of the spring is connected to the spring connection point of the variable center pulley, and the rear end of the spring is connected to the spring fixing seat. The two spring connection points are evenly offset at a certain angle in the radial direction. The variable center pulley also has a winding groove. One end of a steel wire rope is fixed to the variable center pulley with screws and wound around the winding groove, driving the variable center pulley to rotate through friction. The outer side of the variable center pulley is connected to a thigh rod with screws, and the inner side is connected to the spatial connector at the rotation center position. The other end of the spatial connector is connected to the backpack. The spatial connector has several Bowden rope sheath fixing seats.

4. The hip joint-assisted exoskeleton robot with adaptive adjustment of joint rotation center as described in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The binding module includes a waist binding module and a thigh binding module. The waist binding module includes a waist arc-shaped binding piece, a strap, and a plastic insert. The waist arc-shaped binding piece is divided into left and right parts, which are fixed to the left and right sides of the waist base, respectively. Both the waist base and the waist arc-shaped binding piece are provided with adjustment holes. The strap and the plastic insert are located at the front of the patient. The side of the waist arc-shaped binding piece is provided with a threaded hole, which connects to the spring fixing seat and provides a fixed connection point for the spring in the variable center drive module. The thigh binding module includes a thigh rod, a thigh binding piece, and a plastic insert. The thigh rod and the thigh binding piece are connected by screws. The thigh rod is provided with adjustment holes.

Images