Curved Hip Drive Exoskeleton for Multi-Axis Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional wearable assistive devices, such as exoskeletons, fail to provide effective and natural assistive force to users due to misalignment of hip and knee joint drives, limiting movement to only sagittal plane and restricting multi-axis hip joint rotation, leading to inefficient force delivery and unnatural walking patterns.
Innovation Solution
The exoskeleton design includes a main frame with adjustable waist support and hip matching assembly that aligns with the user's hip joint axis, providing a rotational force through a hip drive and knee drive, allowing for multi-axis movement and secure contact with the user's body, ensuring accurate assistive force delivery across various movements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a plate-shaped hip drive is used to deliver assistive force, then the structure is simple, but the assistive force is lost due to spacing and cannot accommodate various user shapes
Solution Approach 1:
The hip drive is designed with a curved surface that matches the natural curvature of the user's hip joint. This curved configuration allows the drive to maintain close contact with the hip joint across various user body shapes, eliminating spacing gaps that would otherwise cause assistive force loss while preserving structural simplicity.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the hip drive axis is fixed on both sides of the waist, then the structure is stable, but the axis frequently deviates from the hip joint axis during walking
Solution Approach 1:
The hip drive axis is designed to be dynamically adjustable rather than fixed. The drive can shift its position and orientation to track the hip joint axis during walking movements, maintaining alignment precision while the overall structure remains stable through controlled adaptability.
3Device complexity
If the hip drive only allows forward and backward leg rotation, then the mechanism is simple, but it restricts multi-axis hip joint movement
Solution Approach 1:
The hip drive mechanism incorporates multiple rotational axes, transitioning from single-axis (forward-backward only) to multi-axis movement capability. This allows the drive to accommodate hip joint rotations in multiple directions including inward-outward movements, enhancing adaptability without significantly increasing mechanical complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A wearable assistive device such as an exoskeleton may include a main frame that support a hip joint of a user. The main frame may have a predetermined curvature and structure that closely conforms to and remains in contact with a hip of the user at or near the hip joint so that the main frame may stably support both hip joints. While the user wears the exoskeleton and walks, bends, or lifts, the exoskeleton may stably and efficiently provide a force to assist a movement originating at the hip joint of the user, thereby aiding the user in stably walking, bending, or lifting.