Asker, A., Omar, M., Zhang, J. et al. (3 more authors) (2025) Optimum Design of Polycentric Knee Hinges Based on Analysis of Knee-exoskeleton Closed Kinematic Chain. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science. ISSN 0954-4062
Abstract
Knee exoskeletons are devices that can enhance users’ mobility and strength. Their compatibility with the user’s joint motion is crucial for proper functioning. Typically, knee hinges are designed to replicate the instantaneous center of rotation (ICR) of an average knee. This study represents a knee exoskeleton worn by a user as a one DoF closed-kinematic chain, which enables calculating the displacement between the exoskeleton and the user’s thigh. The problem of optimizing the exoskeleton hinges to yield low relative movements during flexion and extension motions is formulated based on the proposed analysis. Also, the 4-bar knee model was simulated with different exoskeleton hinge designs to demonstrate the ability of the proposed analysis to predict the relative motions under different alignment conditions. The performance of an optimized polycentric geared knee hinge is then compared experimentally with that of a typical fixed center hinge. Experimental results showed that the optimized polycentric hinge yields less relative motion and a lower chance of exoskeleton migration. The proposed method emphasizes the importance of minimizing relative motion rather than replicating the knee’s ICR and provides a systematic way to design and evaluate various knee hinge designs.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is an author produced version of an article published in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | knee exoskeleton design, polycentric knee joint, knee motion kinematics, optimum knee joint design |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Mar 2025 14:01 |
Last Modified: | 11 Mar 2025 13:24 |
Published Version: | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/095440622... |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/09544062251313926 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:224223 |