A Lightweight Lower Limb Medical Exoskeleton Prototype

Abstract

People losing their ability to walk due to accidents or a stroke have increased in the recent years that is why our aim for this project is to build an exoskeleton that provides walking abilities to a paraplegic user, through the lay out of this report we carried out all the necessary steps to achieve our purpose. The design initiated with pre-testing to study a normal human gait cycle to imitate then we collected data to form our control algorithm and to implement the results in our exoskeleton in order to provide walking motion like a normal human would. Then we started with our basic concept in the mechanical design phase by building the necessary links and joints that resembles a human leg. As for the electrical design we designed it to be as small, convenient and as light as possible. A simulation was carried out to proof our concept of applying the studied motion on the designed mechanical structure making sure no deformation takes place while moving. A prototype was made to test the applicability of our electrical design and the walking algorithm on the electrical components mounted on a minimized mechanical structure. Our objective is to design a walking exoskeleton providing the right motion with the required electrical and mechanical components to carry out its intended process with no problems.