Home PURPOSE OF THE CENTER: To develop the center to address state-of-the-art research, create innovating educational programs, and support technology transfers using commercially viable results to assist the Army Research Laboratory to develop the next generation Future Combat System in the telecommunications sector that assures prevention of perceived threats, and Non Line of Sight/Beyond Line of Sight lethal support.

How to… home page

In the nearly six decades since researchers began to explore methods of creating them, exoskeletons have progressed from the stuff of science fiction to nearly commercialized products. While there are still many challenges associated with exoskeleton development that have yet to be perfected, the advances in the field have been enormous. In this paper, we review the history and discuss the state-of-the-art of lower limb exoskeletons and active orthoses. We provide a design overview of hardware, actuation, sensory, and control systems for most of the devices that have been described in the literature, and end with a discussion of the major advances that have been made and hurdles yet to be overcome.

Lower Extremity Exoskeletons and Active Orthoses: Challenges and State-of-the-Art

Wheeled vehicles are often incapable of transporting heavy materials over rough terrain or up staircases. Lower extremity exoskeletons supplement human intelligence with the strength and endurance of a pair of wearable robotic legs that support a payload. This paper summarizes the design and analysis of the Berkeley lower extremity exoskeleton (BLEEX). The anthropomorphically based BLEEX has 7 DOF per leg, four of which are powered by linear hydraulic actuators. The selection of the DOF, critical hardware design aspects, and initial performance measurements of BLEEX are discussed.

Biomechanical design of the Berkeley lower extremity exoskeleton (BLEEX)

The first energetically autonomous lower extremity exoskeleton capable of carrying a payload has been demonstrated at U.C. Berkeley. This paper summarizes the mechanical design of the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX). The anthropomorphically-based BLEEX has seven degrees of freedom per leg, four of which are powered by linear hydraulic actuators. The selection of the degrees of freedom and their ranges of motion are described. Additionally, the significant design aspects of the major BLEEX components are covered.

/pdf/on-the-mechanical-design-of-the-berkeley-lower-extremity-3361q07hpa.pdf

On the mechanical design of the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX)

Wearable lower limb robotics: A review

When the dynamic type speaker is driven, the problem of wavy reproducibility by existence and the phase rotation of the transition distortion of the speaker is caused in the electromagnetic braking method used in general. In this research, the application of the sliding mode control which is one of the nonlinear controls is applied to the drive of the speaker. The band is divided in this paper, and the preview sliding mode control is used. And it makes the control possible in a wide band.

Design of preview sliding mode control for an wideband speaker system

In this paper, we present a behavior generator of a companion robot “SELF” that does not bore a human. In the simulation, a red ball and a blue ball are displayed. A human moves the red ball with an analog joystick and a PC moves the blue ball. In using this model, the impressions that the robot behaviors give to the human are examined. At first, we classify the action patterns under natural interhuman interaction. Secondly, based on these action patterns, we design a behavior generator for an autonomously learning robot, SELF, by using a statistical model: dynamic Bayesian networks. Finally, the impressions that various robot behaviors give to the human are analyzed through the Semantic Differential (SD) method. The hardware of SELF is also presented.

Development of a Companion Robot “SELF”

The system which the robot is able to help the search is examined in the situation which the many objects of the same type exist. We propose the method combined RFID and the detecting characteristic points in image processing technology, and experimente in the situation where accurate process is difficult by the system which relied on only image processing technology.

Development of a search robot - sensor fusion of RFID and CCD camera -

A Walker with a Function of Getting over a Step

This research aims at the proposal and the consideration of the design method that makes generalized minimum variance control in continuous time domain (CGMVC) two degrees of freedom system. Because CGMVC is one degree of freedom system, the setpoint response and the disturbance rejection cannot be optimized at the same time. Then, double controller structure is used for CGMVC. As a result, the setpoint response and the disturbance rejection can be independently designed. The effectiveness of the above-mentioned method is shown by the simulation result.

Yoshikazu Mori

Papers

Design of preview sliding mode control for an wideband speaker system

Development of a Companion Robot “SELF”

Development of a search robot - sensor fusion of RFID and CCD camera -

A Walker with a Function of Getting over a Step

Generalized Minimum Variance Control in Continuous Time Domain with Double Controller