Exosuit Control Using Movement Embeddings for Personalized Assistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing exoskeletons face challenges in seamless movement control, usability, weight, bulkiness, and energy consumption, limiting their practicality and user acceptance for prolonged use.
Innovation Solution
A concealed intelligent exosuit in the form of intelligent clothing, utilizing a yokeless axial flux electric motor, cycloid transmission, and data-driven control system with machine learning algorithms to dynamically adjust torque and force based on movement primitives, offering lightweight, comfortable, and personalized assistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If traditional exoskeleton structures are used to provide mechanical support and stability, then structural strength and stability are improved, but weight and bulkiness increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible textile structures and soft robotic elements instead of rigid mechanical frameworks. The exosuit uses wearable fabric components with embedded actuators and sensors that provide support through soft materials, dramatically reducing weight while maintaining structural functionality through intelligent material design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional heavy mechanical linkages and rigid structures with intelligent textile systems and soft actuators. The mechanical support function is achieved through smart materials and controlled fabric tension rather than rigid mechanical components, eliminating the need for bulky structural elements.
2Measurement precision
If complex control algorithms are used to accurately interpret wearer movements in real-time, then movement control precision is improved, but computational energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a hybrid control architecture that uses simple threshold-based control for routine movements and reserves complex computational algorithms for exceptional or uncertain situations. This partial application of complex processing reduces overall energy consumption while maintaining high precision when needed, avoiding continuous heavy computational loads.
Solution Approach 2:
The exosuit system uses distributed intelligence where local microcontrollers on wearable sensors perform preliminary processing and only transmit essential data to the central controller. This decentralized approach allows the system to serve itself by pre-processing data at the source, reducing the computational burden and energy consumption of the central processing unit.
3Stability of the object's composition
If rigid structures and bulky components are used to ensure exoskeleton stability, then structural stability is improved, but ergonomics and user comfort deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces rigid structural components with flexible textile materials that conform to the wearer's body contours. The exosuit uses smart fabrics that provide stability through controlled tension and elastic properties rather than rigid frameworks, ensuring both structural support and ergonomic comfort simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic adaptability where the exosuit structure can adjust its stiffness and support characteristics in real-time based on detected movement patterns and user needs. This allows the system to transition between stable and compliant states, providing rigidity when support is needed and flexibility when natural movement is required, optimizing both stability and comfort.
4Power
If powered actuators are added to enhance human performance, then mobility assistance capability is improved, but device weight and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces heavy traditional electric motors and hydraulic actuators with soft robotic actuators integrated into textile structures. These soft actuators use pneumatic or elastic mechanisms embedded in the fabric, providing powered assistance without the weight and complexity of conventional motor systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs phase change materials and shape-memory alloys in the exosuit structure that can change their physical properties in response to thermal or electrical stimuli. These materials provide active assistance by changing stiffness, shape, or tension based on detected movement patterns, delivering powered functionality through material property changes rather than heavy mechanical actuators.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The exosuit provides efficient, continuous, and adaptable mobility support, enhancing user compliance and acceptance by minimizing weight, improving ergonomics, and ensuring safe, real-time assistance across various movements.
Implementation Method 1
Each tooth of the circular array of teeth can be wound with one or more coils of electric wire to generate a magnetic field. The magnetic field is generated when the one or more coils are energized with current.
Implementation Method 2
The one or more coils of electric wire may be arranged to make magnetic field direction parallel to an axis of rotation of the axial flux electric motor.
Implementation Method 3
The first rotor can be equipped with multiple permanent magnets attached to it. The first rotor is mounted above the yokeless stator and there may be a first air gap in between the first rotor and the yokeless stator.
Implementation Method 4
The two back-irons may also provide a return path to magnetic flux caused by the magnetic field of the yokeless stator.
Implementation Method 5
The motor assembly may be comprised of thermally conductive epoxy.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are provided to personalize an exosuit controller for a wearer. By one or more computing devices, an input is received from the wearer, where the input corresponds to a degree of assistance set by the wearer. A set of non-dominated solutions of a multi-objective optimization model corresponding to the exosuit controller is accessed, where the set of non-dominated solutions represents a pareto front of the multi-objective optimization model. One or more parameters of the exosuit controller are modified based on the degree of assistance set by the wearer, wherein the one or more parameters are modified by selecting a non-dominated solution of the set of non-dominated solutions representing the pareto front.