• ICROS
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.25-30
• /
• 2015

본 논문에서는 간병인의 도움없이 자가 보행 재활에 효과적으로 사용될 수 있는 새로운 개념의 가슴 착용형 로봇을 개발하였다. 개발된 로봇의 특징은 크게 세 가지로 나뉜다. 첫째, 구조적 특징으로써, 하박에 착용하는 기존 지팡이 타입의 엘보 크러치와 달리 개발된 로봇은 가슴에 착용되어 착용자의 두 팔을 자유롭게 하는 동시에 팔의 부담을 제거하여 준다. 둘째는 구동 알고리즘의 특징으로써, 가슴부에 부착된 압력센서로부터 사용자의 보행의도를 자동적으로 인식하여 로봇의 다리를 이동시킨다. 또한 착용자의 안전을 위해 초음파 센서를 이용하여 착용자 전방에 장애물이 나타날 시 보행을 멈추고 경고음을 발생시킨다. 마지막으로, 스카치요크 메커니즘을 사용하여 지지다리의 상승과 하강 시 지면 반발력으로 인하여지지 발 상/하강 모터에 과도한 토크가 부과되지 않도록 하였다. 이러한 세 가지 특징으로부터 개발된 로봇이 자가 보행 재활에 효과적으로 사용될 수 있음을 실험적으로 보였으며, EMG (Electromyography) 센서를 이용하여 근력 보조 성능을 정량적으로 검증하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.290-290
• /
• 2004

사회가 고령화되면서 점점 더 노약자 및 류마티스 환자가 늘어나고 있다 특히, 이들은 근육의 쇠퇴와 뼈대 구조의 약화로 인해 타인의 도움 없이는 정상적인 활동이 어렵다. 이들의 정상적인 활동을 도와줄 힘도움 착용 로봇의 개발이 본 연구의 목적이다. 본 논문에서는 노약자 및 류마티스 환자들을 위한 힘도움 착용 로봇의 시스템 개요도를 소개한다. 그림 1은 본 연구의 시스템 개요도를 보여준다. 기구적 메카니즘은 3개의 모터에 의해 구동되는 링크구조를 가지고 있다.(중략)

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.73-78
• /
• 2014

In this paper we propose a wearable elbow rehabilitation robot applied the mirror therapy for elbow rehabilitation. To implement the mirror therapy, a data suit for measuring healthy elbow motion is developed. A powered elbow exoskeleton wearing in paralyzed arm is controlled by the measured data from the healthy elbow motion. In experiments, the elbow rehabilitation exercise by the mirror therapy is performed. From the experimental results we show the wearable exercise robot including the data suit is applicable to the mirror therapy for elbow rehabilitation.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
• /
• 2022.11a
• /
• pp.429-431
• /
• 2022

하지 웨어러블 로봇의 근력 보조 성능을 극대화하기 위해서는 착용자의 보행 상태를 인식하는 보행 위상 추정 기술이 필수적으로 요구된다. 본 논문에서는 착용자의 보행 속도 변화 및 착용자 간 보행 특성 차이에도 강인하게 보행 위상을 추정할 수 있는 LSTM 기반 보행 위상 강건 인식 기술을 개발하였다. 웨어러블 고관절 보조 로봇을 착용한 총 5명의 트레드밀 및 실외 overground의 보행 센서 정보를 바탕으로 학습을 수행하였다. 저속 및 고속 보행을 포함한 다양한 보행 속도에서 정밀한 보행 위상 추정이 가능한 웨어러블 센서 조합을 도출하였고, 보행 위상 인식 정밀성은 5-Fold Cross Validation 기준 RMSE 약 1.68% 수준의 결과를 얻을 수 있었다.

• Journal of the KSME
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.42-46
• /
• 2016

이 글에서는 착용형 로봇(wearable robot)의 정의, 활용 분야 및 국내외 기술동향에 대해 소개하고자 한다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.41 no.9
• /
• pp.825-837
• /
• 2017

This paper describes a novel type of a walking rehabilitation robot that applies robot technologies to crutches used by patients with walking difficulties in the lower body. The primary features of the developed robot are divided into three parts. First, the developed robot is worn on the patient's chest, as opposed to the conventional elbow crutch that is attached to the forearm; hence, it can effectively disperse the patient's weight throughout the width of the chest, and eliminate the concentrated load at the elbow. Furthermore, it allows free arm motion during walking. Second, the developed robot can recognize the walking intention of the patient from the magnitude and direction of the ground reactive forces. This is done using three-axis force sensors attached to the feet of the robot. Third, the robot can perform a stair walking function, which can change vertical movement trajectories in order to step up and down a single stair according to the floor height. Consequently, we experimentally showed that the developed robot can effectively perform walking rehabilitation assistance by perceiving the walking intention of the patient. Moreover we quantitatively verified muscle power assistance by measuring the electromyography (EMG) signals of the muscles of the lower limb.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.39B no.7
• /
• pp.479-490
• /
• 2014

A lower extremity exoskeleton is a robot device that attaches to the lower limbs of the human body to augment or assist with the walking ability of the wearer. In order to improve the wearer's walking ability, the robot senses the wearer's walking locomotion and classifies it into a gait-phase state, after which it drives the appropriate robot motions for each state using its actuators. This paper presents a method by which the robot senses the wearer's locomotion along with a novel classification algorithm which classifies the sensed data as a gait-phase state. The robot determines its control mode using this gait-phase information. If erroneous information is delivered, the robot will fail to improve the walking ability or will bring some discomfort to the wearer. Therefore, it is necessary for the algorithm constantly to classify the correct gait-phase information. However, our device for sensing a human's locomotion has very sensitive characteristics sufficient for it to detect small movements. With only simple logic like a threshold-based classification, it is difficult to deliver the correct information continually. In order to overcome this and provide correct information in a timely manner, a probabilistic gait-phase classification algorithm is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm offers excellent accuracy.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.81-88
• /
• 2015

In this paper, we evaluate structural integrity of the wearable robot by using finite element analysis, which is made of CFRP(Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) composite materials to be lightened. On the basis of the ASTM(American Standard Test Method), mechanical tests of the material are carried out in tensile, compressive and shear test for analytical evaluation. With the tested composite material, the main frame and two femoral frames of the robot is redesigned to satisfy the lightening design requirements. It is verified with the structural analysis that the redesigned frames are good for the part of the wearable robot.

• ICROS
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.15-27
• /
• 2003

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.617-624
• /
• 2015

This paper describes the development of a wearable robot to assist the elbow muscle for use by elderly workers in aging societies. Various previously developed wearable robots have drawbacks in terms of their price, portability, and slow recognition of the wearer's intention. In this paper, emphasis is placed on the following features to minimize these drawbacks. The first feature is that an actuator is attached only at the elbow joint that withstands the highest moment during arm motion to reduce the weight, volume, and price of the robot and increase its practicality. The second is that operation of the wearable robot is divided into two modes, a tracking mode and a muscle strengthening mode, and the robot can automatically switch between these modes by analyzing the wearer's intention through the brachial muscle strength measuring device developed in this study. The assistive performance of the developed wearable robot is experimentally verified by motion tracking experiments without an external load and muscle strengthening experiments with an external load. During the muscle strengthening experiments, the power of the muscle of the upper arm is measured by a commercial electromyography (EMG) sensor. Motion tracking performance at a speed of $120^{\circ}/s$ and muscle assistance of over 60 % were obtained using our robot.