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Study of a Gravity Compensator for the Lower Body  

Choi, Hyeung-Sik (Department of Mechanical and Information Engineering, Korea Maritime Univ.)
Kim, Dong-Ho (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Maritime Univ.)
Jeon, Ji-Kwang (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Maritime Univ.)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering / v.28, no.4, 2011 , pp. 455-462 More about this Journal
Abstract
This paper is about the design of a new gravity compensator for the lower body exo-skeleton device. The exo-skeleton devices is for increasing the torque of the human body joint for the purpose of helping the disabled, workers in the industry, and military soldiers. So far, most of studied exo-skeleton devices are actuated by the motors, but motors are limited in energy such that a short durability is always a big problem. In this paper, a new gravity compensator is proposed to reduce the torque load applied to human body joints due to gravity. The gravity compensator is designed using a tortional bar spring, and its structure and characteristics are studied through the test and computer simulation. A design concept on the exo-skeleton device using the gravity compensator is presented. An analysis and computer simulation on the torque reduction of the proposed exo-skeleton device that applies and non-applies the gravity compensator are performed.
Keywords
Tortion Bar; Gravity Compensator; Exo-skeleton;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
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