Self-alignment mechanisms for exoskeletons alleviate critical issues arising from misalignment between exoskeleton and human joints. In this paper we present a method for kinematic synthesis of a passive mechanism for aligning joint axes of exoskeletons with human anatomical joint axes. Planar parallel manipulators are known for their inherent stiffness and compactness; we propose a novel parallel manipulator design to achieve self-alignment. The base platform of the parallel manipulator is attached to the human arm and the moving platform is attached to the exoskeleton. Three PRR chains connect the base and moving platforms. An optimal design problem is formulated to find the smallest manipulator that spans the specified workspace, which represents the possible area of misalignment.

Volume Subject Area:
40th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference
Topics:
Design, Exoskeleton devices, Manipulators, Arches, Chain, Kinematics, Manipulator design, Stiffness
This content is only available via PDF.
Copyright © 2016 by ASME
You do not currently have access to this content.