A Human Lower Limb Mechanical Phantom for the Testing of Knee Exoskeletons.

ABSTRACT: The development of assistive lower-limb exoskeletons can be time-consuming. Testing prototype medical devices on vulnerable populations such as children also has safety concerns. Mechanical phantoms replicating the lower-limb kinematics provide an alternative for the fast validation and iteration of exoskeletons. However, most phantoms treat the limbs as rigid bodies and fail to capture soft tissue deformation at the human/exoskeleton interface. Human soft tissue can absorb and dissipate energy when compressed, leading to a mismatch between simulated and human exoskeleton testing outcomes. We have developed a methodology for quickly testing and validating the performance of knee exoskeletons using a mechanical phantom capable of emulating knee kinematics soft-tissue deformation of the lowe

SUBMITTER: Barrutia WS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10311455 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature