Stefan Roland Taal and Yoshiyuki Sankai
Currently, full body exoskeletons still lack movability in their back and shoulder parts, resulting in limited applicability in, e.g., nursing care. An exoskeletal spine and shoulder mechanism called “exo-spine” has therefore been developed with the purpose of allowing 3 degree of freedom (DOF) spinal motion and 2 DOF shoulder girdle abduction. It consists of a mechanism of vertebras, shoulder blades, and two cables for actuation such that only one motor is required. Control equations were obtained through measurements and friction analysis. Experiments were performed with a subject wearing the exo-spine in a simplified full body exoskeleton. The wearer was able to lift up to 40 kg using all DOF of the system. From this we confirmed the exo-spine’s 5 DOF movability and lifting performance. Next, the exo-spine will be installed in HAL exoskeletons in order to increase their usability in health care settings
