Investigation of a wearable compliant mechanism for knee rehabilitation
Loading...
Files
Full Text E-thesis
Date
2021-04-20
Authors
Chen, Yingyue
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
Wearable devices for knee rehabilitation have been studied extensively in the past few years, with particular applications in tackling ageing problems all over the world. Such devices were firstly created 40 years ago. Although numerous solutions have been proposed since then, many challenges still exist, like high energy consumption compared to their short battery lifetime, low portability and incompatibility anthropomorphic mechanisms.
Recently, these issues are resolved with different methods, including the development of better-designed actuators and artificial muscles, and the improvement of gait models. However, there are questions associated with each of these methods such as the self-weight of actuators and muscles which decrease the portability of the devices, while increased complexity is associated with more accurate models.
The resulting device from this thesis aims to overcome the difficulties mentioned above and acts as lightweight and functional wearable devices/joints. The device consists of two rings fixed on the femur and tibia, respectively, connected with two crossing flexural shells. The design concept comes from the anatomy and physiology of the human knees concluded in the bio-joint model. Two designs, cross-spring pivot and the crossing four-bar linkage, are studied in this thesis. The kinetostatic models of the two designs are established for the intended bionic characteristics. After optimizing the two designs by using the analytical models, it shows that the crossing four-bar linkage is much better than the cross-spring pivot for matching the bio-joint. A comparison between analytical model and FEA for each design is implemented, showing acceptable agreement. A prototype is fabricated, and preliminarily static experiment tests are conducted.
Description
Keywords
Compliant mechanisms , Knee rehabilitation
Citation
Chen, Y. 2021. Investigation of a wearable compliant mechanism for knee rehabilitation. MRes Thesis, University College Cork.