School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom.
Adept Ergonomics Ltd, Leicester LE5 1DA, United Kingdom.
Bioinspir Biomim. 2024 Sep 23;19(6). doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/ad79d0.
Wearable robots have promising characteristics for human augmentation; however, the the design and specification stage needs to consider biomechanical impact. In this work, musculoskeletal software is used to assess the biomechanical implications of having a two-degrees-of-freedom supernumerary robotic tail mounted posterior to the human trunk. Forward and backward tilting motions were assessed to determine the optimal design specification. Specifically; the key criteria utilised included the centre of pressure, the dynamic wrench exerted by the tail onto the human body and a global muscle activation index. Overall, it was found that use of a supernumerary tail reduced lower limb muscle activation in quiet stance. Furthermore, the optimal design specification required a trade-off between the geometric and inertial characteristics, and the amount of muscle assistance provided by the tail to facilitate safe physical Human-Robot interaction.
可穿戴机器人在人体增强方面具有广阔的应用前景；然而，在设计和规范阶段需要考虑生物力学的影响。在这项工作中，使用肌肉骨骼软件来评估在人体背部安装具有两个自由度的额外机器人尾巴对生物力学的影响。评估了前倾和后倾运动，以确定最佳设计规范。具体而言；使用的关键标准包括压力中心、尾巴对人体施加的动力扳手以及整体肌肉激活指数。总的来说，研究发现，使用额外的尾巴可以减少人在安静站立时下肢肌肉的激活。此外，最佳设计规范需要在尾巴的几何和惯性特性以及为促进安全的人机交互提供的肌肉辅助量之间进行权衡。
