Authors
R.K.P.S. Ranaweera1, [email protected], R.A.R.C. Gopura1, [email protected]
1
Bionics Laboratory - Department of Mechanical Engineering,
T.S.S. Jayawardena2, [email protected]
2
Department of Textile and Clothing Technology, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Moratuwa 10400, Sri Lanka
G.K.I. Mann3, [email protected]
3
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 230 Elizabeth Ave, St. John’s, NL A1B 3X9, Canada
www.mrt.ac.lk

Available Online 30 June 2018.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2991/jrnal.2018.5.1.11How to use a DOI?
Keywords
knee exoskeleton; biomechanical energy harvesting; passive mechanisms; squatting
Abstract
This paper proposes a knee exoskeleton with passive-powering mechanism to provide power assistance to the knee joint during squat lifting of objects from the ground. It is designed to capture and store 20% of the biomechanical energy dissipated at the biological knee joint during decent phase and return the harnessed energy in the ascent phase in a squatting cycle. The effectiveness of the proposed system was verified by evaluating performance of key muscles of knee joint using surface electromyography (sEMG) signals. Statistical data from experiments revealed a reduction of peak root-mean-square averages of sEMG signals of knee extensor muscles by 30 - 40% during squatting.

Copyright
Copyright © 2018, the Authors. Published by ALife Robotics Corp. Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc/4.0/).