RU2362598C2 - Passive cargo exoskeleton, knee hinge for passive cargo exoskeleton, compensator for passive cargo exoskeleton - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: medicine.

SUBSTANCE: invention concerns satisfaction of vital needs of the person and can be used in tourism, sports, at resque and army operations. The passive cargo exoskeleton contains a skeleton with fastening elements to a trunk, two pairs of the coxofemoral and talocrural levers bridged among themselves by means of knee hinges with elements of bracing, and pivotally connected by the free extremities with a skeleton and legs of feet. The skeleton is executed in the form of a two-part corset, with strengthened on it longitudinal guideways, passing with a lobby on a back part of a corset. Junction of levers with a skeleton is carried out by means of the jack established with possibility of moving on referring at change of an angle between a skeleton and the coxofemoral lever. The levers are executed in the form of the spatial covers placed with possibility of bracing on a forward part of a hip and an anticnemion by elements of fastening. The fastening element to legs of feet is executed in the form of the hinged knot fixed on footwear with possibility of turn stops round three axes of coordinates.

EFFECT: provision of the maximum unloading of a human body at raised mobility and safety of moving.

6 cl, 6 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the field of meeting the vital needs of a person and can be used in tourism, sports, during rescue and army operations.

The inventive design, primarily intended to relieve the load on the muscles and skeleton of a person when carrying heavy loads. Exoskeleton, taking on the vertical component of the weight of the load, unloads the spine, joints and legs of a person when walking, so the device can also be used in medical equipment, in particular in traumatology and orthopedics.

There are a large number of technical solutions of exo or “external” skeletons that implement the idea of unloading, consisting of a frame with fastening elements to the body, two pairs of levers pivotally connected to each other, which serve as the thigh and ankle, as well as with the frame and foot support. For example, according to the patents of the Russian Federation No. 2116063 (А61Н 3/00, publ. 07/27/1998), 2200529 (А61Н 3/00, publ. 20.03.2003), 12029 (А63В 25/00, publ. 12/16/1999), 2110243 (A61H 3/00, publ. 05/10/1998). These devices are set in motion under the action of muscles, therefore, belong to passive structures. Active exoskeleton actuated by external activators, for example, motors mounted on a frame, are also known. For example, used in the U.S. Army (see http://www.defencetalk.com/, U.S. Applications US 2005/0258210 (A45F 3/04, 24/11/2005) and US 2007/056592 (A61G 15/00, 15/03/2007), international applications WO 2005/046941 (B25J 9/00, 26/05/2005), WO 2004043307 (A61F 5/01, 27/05/2004)).

All of the above structures are either very complex and expensive, and therefore, demanding in maintenance, or do not provide sufficient mobility, and therefore, comfort and safety of movement.

The technical result, to which the claimed technical solution is directed, is the maximum unloading of the human body with increased mobility and safety of movement.

The specified technical result is achieved by the fact that in a passive cargo exoskeleton containing a frame with fastening elements to the body, two pairs of hip and ankle levers connected to each other by a hinge assembly with a fixation element and pivotally connected guides passing from the front to the back of the corset (cocoon ), while the connection of the levers with the body is carried out by means of a compensator installed with the ability to move along the guides when the angle between the frame and the tazobe a draining lever, and the levers are made in the form of spatial shells, for example C-shaped, placed with the possibility of fixing on the front of the thigh and lower leg with fastening elements, while horizontal splines are made on the outer surface of the shell, and the fastening element to the foot supports is made in the form of a connecting unit fixed on the shoe with the ability to rotate the foot around the three coordinate axes.

In the claimed design, a compensator is used, containing one drive and two driven drum gears connected to each other, for example, by a cable. The drive drum-gear is installed in the drive drum unit, and the driven drum-gears are in the upper and lower cases of the compensator.

The hinge assembly of the claimed device is a kinematic pair of two levers, consisting of two brake discs and a clamping sleeve.

The inventive design of a passive exoskeleton is illustrated by graphic materials.

Figure 1 shows the scheme of exoskeleton.

Figure 2 - design of the "knee" hinge with a brake function.

Figure 3 - design of the compensator.

Figure 4 is an example of the implementation of the shells.

As shown in figure 1, the exoskeleton frame consists of the front 1 and rear 2 parts of the corset (cocoon) connected in the upper part by two hinges 3. The hinges are needed in order to put on and take off the exoskeleton in the open state. On the sides are latches 4, which hold the corset in a closed state, providing a tight fit of the corset on the human body. On top of the shells are guides, for example, box-shaped profiles 5 and 6, which play the role of a power frame that transfers the load from the load through a system of levers to the exoskeleton support. Belt 7 helps to fix the frame on the body. Compensators 8, moving the upper platform 9 along the box-shaped profiles 5, reduce or increase the length of the body depending on the angle between the body and the limb. The hinge 10 allows the limbs to deviate to the side. The hinge 11 performs two functions: allows you to raise and lower the limb and controls the movement of the compensators 8.

Hip and ankle arms 12 and 13 are made, for example, in the form of spatial, mirror-shaped C-shaped shells that can be fixed on the front of the thigh and lower leg by fastening elements 14, while horizontal slots 15 are made on the outer surface of the shells, which make it possible moving a limb or foot around a common vertical axis. Hip and ankle arms 12 and 13 are connected by hinges 16, which allows the leg to bend at the knee. The hinges 16 are also braking devices that can be turned on and off as needed. If a person with a load descends along an inclined plane or stairs, then the inclusion of braking devices will remove the load from the muscles of the bending leg, and the limb will be unbent without effort.

Ankle levers 12 are connected to the connecting node of the foot support through the slider 17, which provides rotation around a common vertical axis. The connecting node of the foot 18 is a fork 20 connected through a hinge 19, which is connected through a hinge 21 to a support 22 inserted into an integrated shoe 23, which in combination provides three degrees of freedom of movement of the feet, namely the possibility of angular movement around the XYZ axes.

The knee joint with the brake function shown in FIG. 2 consists of two brake discs 24, 25 and a clamping sleeve 27. The brake discs are arranged so that the stationary brake disc 24 is rigidly fixed by fastening elements, for example screws or rivets, on one of the levers the knee joint, for example on the ankle lever 13, and another brake disc 25 is mounted on the axis of the articulation of the levers 12 and 13 and is movable and has two degrees of freedom - angular and longitudinal displacement relative to the axis. The ratchet mechanism 26 of the lever 12 provides engagement of the brake disc 25 with the lever. The brake disk 25 and the ratchet mechanism 26 of the lever 12 provide a rigid fixation of the disk relative to the lever when rotating in one direction and free rotation of the disk relative to the lever when rotating in the opposite direction. This design allows you to brake the brake discs during rotation of the ankle lever 13 relative to the hip lever 12 in the direction of bending the legs and to rotate the levers in the opposite direction without braking.

The braking force of the knee joint is controlled by the clamping sleeve 27. The clamping sleeve 27 is designed so that it is located on the same axis of rotation of the brake discs 24 and 25, with one end connected by a threaded connection to the brake disc 24, and the opposite support flange through the buffer 30 to the brake the disk 25. The tightening torque of the clamping sleeve 27 and the brake disk 24 provides control of the compression force of the brake discs 24 and 25. The support flange of the clamping sleeve 27 is designed to engage with the ratchet mechanism m 28. The support flange of the clamping sleeve 27 and the ratchet mechanism 28 of the lever 12 provide rigid fixation of the clamping sleeve 27 relative to the lever 12 when rotating in the direction of bending the legs and free rotation of the clamping sleeve relative to the lever when rotating in the opposite direction. This design allows you to prevent spontaneous twisting of the clamping sleeve, and also provides an additional tightening torque of the clamping sleeve 27 during rotation of the ankle lever 13 relative to the hip lever 12 in the direction of bending the legs.

The brake mechanism is disengaged by disengaging the ratchet latch 29 and releasing the brake disk 25 from engaging the brake disk 24 with the clamping sleeve 27.

The compensator shown in figure 3, consists of the upper housing of the compensator 31, the drive drum unit 36 and the lower housing of the compensator 37. The drive drum unit 36 is pivotally connected through the deviation hinge 35 and the axis 42 with the upper and lower compensator bodies 31, 37. The upper housing of the compensator consists of a housing 31, a drum gearbox 32, a rotation cable 33 and a displacement cable 34 wound on a drum gearbox 32 and fixed by ends to an exoskeleton box profile 5. The lower housing of the compensator consists of a housing 37, a drum gear 38, a rotation cable 39 and a displacement cable 40 wound on a drum gear 38 and fixed by the ends of the hip lever platform 43. The rotation cables 33 and 39 are rigidly fixed on one side to the axes of the drums gears 32 and 38, and on the other hand, on the driving drum 41 of the drive drum unit 36, the rotation cable 33 passing through the deviation hinge 35. This communication design of the reduction gears 32, 38 and the drive drum unit 36 sets the required rotation of the re-drums uktorov 38 and 32 depending on the change in the angle between the unit leading drum 36 and the lower compensator housing 37 that occurs when bending the leg or body tilt. The rotation of the gear drums 32 and 38 leads to winding on them the movement cables 34 and 39 and, as a consequence, the displacement of the box-shaped profile 5 and the platform of the hip lever 43 connected with them relative to the compensator body. Such a compensator operation scheme allows to achieve compliance with the required leverage with misalignment of human joints and exoskeleton.

The maximum effect is achieved when walking on a horizontal surface or when moving a person in exoskeleton on an inclined surface down (for example, on stairs).

When lifting along an inclined surface, the leg bones take on part of the load, the leg muscles work as usual, but the spine is maximally unloaded, just as when moving horizontally in the exoskeleton.

When descending along an inclined surface, the load from the muscles of the legs is removed using the brake nodes located in the knee joints of the exoskeleton. These nodes can be turned on and off depending on the terrain.

Passive exoskeleton does not increase human strength (since it does not have additional energy sources).

For a cargo weighing 50 kg, the weight of exoskeleton will be 5-7 kg (depending on materials).

This design will be useful:

1) athletes - tourists, climbers, water divers, cavers, divers, etc .;

2) armies - in addition to the equipment that a soldier should wear, additional armor protection can be hung on the exoskeleton. In this exoskeleton, a soldier will be able to move even with a broken leg and at the same time carry a load;

3) Ministry of Emergencies - the transfer of victims in an environment where it is difficult to use a stretcher, the transfer of goods.

In exoskeleton, you can (if necessary) hang for hours on a rope (blood vessels and muscles are not squeezed).

Examples

1. A climber who has torn off a slope or has fallen into a crack. At the same time, you can not drop the backpack.

2. Rescue a soldier from the battlefield or injured in a natural disaster using a helicopter, if there is no time or opportunity to raise him inside the aircraft.

Claims (6)

1. Passive cargo exoskeleton containing a frame with fastening elements to the body, two pairs of hip and ankle levers connected by knee hinges with fixation elements, and pivotally connected by their free ends to the frame and foot supports, characterized in that the frame is made in the form two-part corset, with longitudinal guides fixed on it, passing from the front to the back of the corset, while connecting the levers to the frame by means of a compensator installed with the ability to move along the guides when changing the angle between the frame and the hip lever, and the levers are made in the form of spatial shells placed with the possibility of fixation on the front of the thigh and lower leg by fastening elements, and the fastening element to the foot supports is made in the form of a hinge unit fixed on shoes with the ability to rotate the foot around three coordinate axes. 2. Passive cargo exoskeleton according to claim 1, characterized in that the spatial shells are made C-shaped, on the outer surface of which horizontal slots are made. 3. Passive cargo exoskeleton according to claim 1, characterized in that the longitudinal guides are made in the form of box-shaped profiles. 4. Passive cargo exoskeleton according to claim 1, characterized in that the fastening element to the foot supports is made in the form of an articulated foot integrated fork shoe, mounted with the possibility of horizontal movement relative to the spatial shell. 5. The knee hinge of a passive cargo exoskeleton, characterized in that it consists of two brake discs, a clamping sleeve located on the axis of the articulation of the levers, while the clamping sleeve is connected at one end to the stationary brake disk and the opposite end is made in the form of a support flange, through a buffer with a movable brake disc associated with one of the levers, at least one ratchet mechanism. 6. Compensator for passive cargo exoskeleton, characterized in that it consists of driven drums of the upper and lower bodies and the drive drum unit connected by a cable, with the formation of kinematic pairs with mutually perpendicular axes of rotation.

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