This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will promote the progress of science and advance the national health and prosperity by providing new knowledge related to wearable robotics. Wearable robots, such as powered exoskeletons, promise to improve our productivity, health, and independence by augmenting, preserving, and restoring our ability to move. However, existing powered exoskeletons are heavy and inefficient, which largely prevents them from being used in real life. Existing powered exoskeletons apply assistance to each wearer's joint separately, which requires many actuators and large batteries. In contrast, the powered exoskeletons created in this project will use bio-inspired actuation systems that concurrently assist multiple wearer’s joints, much like human muscles. Because one exoskeleton actuator assists multiple wearer’s joints, fewer actuators will be needed. Because energy is transferred between joints instead of being dissipated, smaller and lighter actuators and batteries will be needed. The multidisciplinary research team of roboticists, movement scientists, and clinicians will work closely with individuals with disabilities, broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in research and positively impact engineering education.
Ambulation requires considerable energy to accelerate and decelerate the limb segments and to dynamically support the body against gravity. Human ambulation is highly efficient and stable because of the passive dynamics of the leg and the elastic properties of the muscles, and also because many muscles span multiple joints, actively transferring energy between joints. In contrast, existing powered exoskeletons are designed and controlled considering each actuated joint as a separate unit, independent from the others, even when multiple joints are actuated. This approach disrupts the natural dynamics of ambulation, resulting in less efficient and less stable gait. The goal of this project is to address this fundamental gap by developing energy-conserving mechanisms and control algorithms inspired by human ambulation. We will optimize the energy exchange across multiple joints for the design and control of powered exoskeletons by studying how humans adapt to the assistance concurrently provided by a powered exoskeleton to multiple leg joints, on different anatomical planes, or during different ambulation activities. We will then design powered exoskeletons that can allow for energy transfer between different joints, conserving energy within the system, while improving metabolic cost, muscle effort, and stability of the wearer.
This project is supported by the cross-directorate Foundational Research in Robotics program, jointly managed and funded by the Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
