Stair Climbing Spring Exoskeletons
2019-2021
I, along with two lab mates, collaborated on designing and making a quasi-passive exoskeleton capable of helping you climb stairs and squat. The exoskeleton itself is springy, and can apply forces on the led to help extend the knee after being compressed. All three designs shows above can do this, but we selected the spring coil design as it was easily donnable by a user. You can put it on like pants. The knee module of the final exoskeleton is shown below.
We used the exoskeleton in experiments with human subjects. We used the spring in a study helping you ascend in a squat, and we attached motors to the exoskeleton and motorized the bending of the spring to help users ascend stairs. We measured biomechanical data to evaluate the effect on motion in the tasks, muscle activity and foot pressure and loading.
