KR20170006816A

KR20170006816A - A wearable hand exoskeleton system using cables

Info

Publication number: KR20170006816A
Application number: KR1020150098032A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 배준범; 박연규; 유범재
Original assignee: 울산과학기술원; 재단법인 실감교류인체감응솔루션연구단
Priority date: 2015-07-09
Filing date: 2015-07-09
Publication date: 2017-01-18
Also published as: KR101740310B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable.
A wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable according to the present invention comprises: a joint connection part separately connected to a joint part of a finger and an end joint; A sensing module connected to the articulated joint through a position measuring cable; And a motor mounted on the sensing module and connected to the articulating joint through a joint control cable.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable, and more particularly, to a wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable for measuring finger movement through a plurality of cables and transmitting a cable driving force to a finger.

Because hands are one of the richest sources of tactile sensing, elaborate and complex manipulations can not be achieved without hands. For the development of a wearable system for hands, analysis of unconstrained hand motion must precede. Extensive research has been conducted to measure finger movements with a simple system.

First, similar approaches using optical linear encoders (OLE) have been attempted, but coarse and wide wire cables for the encoders and optical encoders attached to the fingers can interfere with the natural movement of the fingers.

In addition, three-dimensional magnetic position sensors were applied to finger joint angle measurement, and they were able to measure finger movements in three dimensions. However, the required peripherals may be an obstacle to the movement of the unconstrained hand. A fiber optic sensor was also used for angle measurement. Fiber optic sensors are attached to gloves for easy wearing, but optical sensors must be carefully bent to measure joint angles. In addition, the mobility is extremely limited by the required peripheral devices such as laser diodes and optical power systems.

On the other hand, while flexible resistance is commercially available and has good performance in terms of resolution and repeatability, it is inefficient in cost and difficult to integrate with other systems such as the hand exoskeleton system.

Thus, attempts have been made with optical encoders, magnetic position sensors, fiber optic sensors and flexible resistors, etc., but due to the limited space of the hand, a compact and simple measuring system - which must be able to measure finger motion unrestrainedly Can not be said to have been fully developed.

In addition, a conventional exoskeleton structure is generally provided with an actuator for moving the joint of each finger, and a sensor for sensing a moving displacement or an angle of the joint. However, Or the sensor is installed, the volume of the gloved exoskeleton device becomes very large and the weight becomes heavy.

Also, the manufacturing cost is increased due to the complicated structure, and it is pointed out that a complicated structure and a large volume make it difficult for the user to wear and inconvenient to use.

Korean Patent Registration No. 1263933

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems and disadvantages of the prior art exoskeleton device, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for measuring finger movements through a plurality of position measuring cables, A wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable capable of adjusting tension can be provided.

The above object of the present invention can be achieved by a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus comprising a joint joint part separately connected to a joint part of a finger and an end joint of a finger, a sensing module connected to the joint joint part through a position measuring cable, A hand-held hand exoskeleton device using a cable including a motor connected through a cable is provided.

Wherein the joint connecting portion comprises a first joint connecting portion, a second joint connecting portion, and a third joint connecting portion which are coupled to the joints of the fingers and the triceps bones of the fingers except for the thumb, A connecting portion and a third joint connecting portion.

In addition, the position measuring cable is constituted of a plurality of position measuring cables individually connected to the first joint connecting part, the second joint connecting part to the third joint connecting part of each finger, and the plurality of position measuring cables have different lengths, A joint connecting part, and a second joint connecting part to a third joint connecting part.

The joint connection portion is formed with a cable support protrusion formed on the upper portion thereof to support the joint control cable inserted into the through hole and a cable guide groove through which the position measurement cable is fixed or passable.

The sensing module is separately mounted at a position corresponding to each finger, and the plurality of position measuring cables are connected to sense a variable resistance change by a potentiometer installed therein, and the plurality of position measuring cables are coupled The potentiometer, the spring, and the stopper for controlling the elasticity of the spring are individually installed in the plurality of casings, and the plurality of casings are arranged vertically or horizontally.

Further, the motor is provided with a pulley at a position corresponding to the joint connection portion, and the joint control cable is wound on the pulley and connected to the joint connection portion, thereby relieving the joint control cable through the pulley The tension is controlled by winding.

As described above, according to the wearable hand exoskeleton device using the cable according to the present invention, since the position measuring cables are individually connected to the joint joints mounted on the fingers, the joint angles of 14 fingers can be accurately measured, Thus, by adjusting the tension of the joint control cable, it is easy to adjust the force of the cable applied to the finger.

In addition, since each joint connection portion is independently designed, movement of each finger joint is not limited, and each joint connection portion is driven by a cable, so that it can be manufactured with a small structure. In addition, So that the force control according to the driving of each joint connection portion can be facilitated.

1 is a perspective view of a wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable according to the present invention.
2 is a sectional view of a sensing module applied to a wearable hand exoskeleton device according to the present invention;
3 is a perspective view of a joint joint applied to an exoskeleton device according to the present invention.
FIGS. 4 and 5 are schematic diagrams of measurement of change in length of cables applicable to a wearable hand exoskeleton device according to the present invention,
Fig. 4 is a schematic view showing the state of a finger in a wearable hand exoskeleton device. Fig.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a bending state of a finger in a wearable hand exoskeleton device. FIG.

The advantages and features of the present invention and the techniques for achieving them will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. The present embodiments are provided so that the disclosure of the present invention is not only limited thereto, but also may enable others skilled in the art to fully understand the scope of the invention.

The terms used herein are intended to illustrate the embodiments and are not intended to limit the invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. It is to be understood that the terms 'comprise', and / or 'comprising' as used herein may be used to refer to the presence or absence of one or more other components, steps, operations, and / Or additions.

In addition, like reference numerals denote like elements throughout the drawings, and a detailed description of known features and techniques may be omitted so as to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the discussion of the described embodiments of the present invention . The terms first, second, etc. in this specification are used to distinguish one element from another element, and the element is not limited by the terms.

The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wearable hand exoskeleton device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

1 is a perspective view of a wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a sensing module applied to a wearable hand exoskeleton device according to the present invention.

As shown, the exoskeleton device 100 using a cable according to the present invention includes a joint joint 110, a sensing module 120 coupled to the rear of the joint joint 110, Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > 130 < / RTI >

The joint connection part 110 and the sensing module 120 may be coupled to a wearable member such as a glove that can be worn by a user, and may be mounted on the user's hand. In addition to the glove, Lt; / RTI >

The sensing module 120 and the motor 130 may be coupled behind the plurality of joint connection parts 110. The sensing module 120 and the motor 130 may be coupled to each other. That is, it is preferable that the joint connection part 110 is mounted on the finger of the wearable member, and the sensing module 120 and the motor 130 are mounted on the back of the hand.

A finger structure for understanding the joint structure of the articulated joint 110 will be briefly described. The finger except for the thumb is composed of three bones, a distal bony, a middle bony and a proximal phalanx, The proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint, the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint, and the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint. The thumb has only two bones: the endodermic bone, the first bony bone, and the two joints, the interphalangeal (IP) joint, and the MCP joint. The metacarpal phalanx bones meet the wrist at the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint. IP joints, including the PIP and DIP joints, have 1-degrees of freedom for flexion / extension movements and MCP joints have 2-degrees of freedom for flexion / extension and abduction / adduction movements .

Based on the schematic structure of the fingers, the joint connection part 110 is composed of three joint connections 110 that can be coupled to the PIP, DIP, and endodermic bones of each finger except for the thumb, And two joint joints 110 that can be combined. Hereinafter, the articulating part connected to the PIP of each finger will be referred to as a first joint connecting part 111, the articulating part connected to the DIP and IP of each finger and the thumb will be referred to as a second articulating part 112, And a joint connecting portion to be connected to the bone is designated as a third joint connecting portion 113. [

The joint connection part 110 of each finger is connected to the sensing module 120 and the motor 130 through a cable 140. The cable 140 is divided into a position measuring cable 141 for measuring joint movements and joint positions of the fingers and a joint control cable 142 for maintaining a proper tension in the joint joints 110 of the fingers.

One end of the position measuring cable 141 is connected to the sensing module 120 and one end of the joint control cable 142 can be connected to the motor 130. The sensing module 120 can measure the bending angle of the joint with respect to the flexion and extension of the finger at each joint connection part 110 through the position measuring cable 141. The sensor module 120 So that appropriate tension is applied to each of the joint joints 110 through the joint control cable 142. That is, the force transmitted to the joint joints 110 can be controlled through the driving force of the motor 130. The strength of the driving force can be controlled by the current control of the motor 130 according to the finger motion information measured through the position measuring cable 141.

The joint control cable 142 and the position measuring cable 141 coupled to the respective joint connection parts 110 are connected to the motor 130 and the sensing module 120 via the upper and lower sides of the joint connection part 110, Can be combined. The position measuring cable 141 includes a plurality of position measuring cables 141 having one end connected to the sensing module 120 and the other end of which is connected to the first joint connecting portion 111, the second joint connecting portion 112, And are connected individually at the lower side of the joint connecting portion 113. More specifically, the position measuring cable 141 connected to the first to third joint connecting parts 111 to 113 has different lengths, one end of which is connected to the sensing module 120, The positions of the third joint joints 111 to 113 are separately measured, and the finger motion information including the degree of bending of the fingers can be measured by synthesizing the measured information. That is, it is possible to accurately measure 14 joint angles of each finger.

The joint control cable 142 is connected to the motor 130 through a single cable connected to the end of the third joint connecting portion 113 via the upper side of the first through third joint connecting portions 111 through 113 And appropriate tensile force can be transmitted to the joint joints 111 to 113 according to the degree of bending of the position measuring cable 141. That is, if it is determined by the position measuring cable 141 that the degree of bending of the finger is large, the motor 130 is driven to lengthen the length of the joint control cable 142, and when it is determined that the degree of bending of the finger is small, ) Can be kept short so that the tension applied to the finger can be adjusted. The length of the joint control cable 142 is controlled by driving the motor 130 and the relationship between the driving of the motor 130 and the joint control cable 142 will be described in more detail below.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a joint joint applied to the exoskeleton device according to the present invention. The joint connecting portion 112 shown in FIG. 3 will be described by taking as an example a second joint connecting portion to be connected to a DIP (distal interphalangeal joint) among the joint connecting portions of the fingers, and the first and third joint connecting portions There is a difference between the second joint connection portion and the specific shape, but the functional elements are the same, so a detailed description will be omitted.

The second joint connecting part 112 shown in FIG. 3 has a cable supporting part 112a protruding upward and supporting a joint control cable 142 at an upper part thereof, and a cable A guide groove 112b is formed.

The cable support 112a can support the cable so as to be spaced apart from the finger by coupling the joint control cable 142 through the through hole 112c, so that the movement of the finger can be prevented from being disturbed by the cable. The position measuring cable 141 is coupled to one point of the cable guide groove 112b under the second joint connecting portion 112 and is coupled to the third joint connecting portion 113 forward through the cable guide groove 112b. So as to guide the connection path of the cable.

As described above, since the joint connectors used in the present embodiment are attached in the form of independent parts to the joints and the ends of the fingers of the fingers, the cable supports The joint control cable 142 and the position measuring cable 141 are guided along the path through the cable guide groove 112a and the cable guide groove 112b to constitute a small wearable hand exoskeleton structure.

Meanwhile, the position measuring cable 141 and the joint control cable 142, which are coupled to each other through the joint joints of the fingers, are connected to the sensing module 120 and the motor 130 installed on the rear side of the articulating joints, The position measuring cable 141 is connected to the sensing module 120 at one end and the joint control cable 142 is connected at one end to the motor 130.

The sensing module 120 is mounted at five positions corresponding to the respective fingers and is connected to the first to third joint connectors 111 to 113 mounted on the respective fingers, ). A potentiometer (not shown) is installed in the sensing module 120, and a position measuring cable 141 connected to each of the joint connectors is coupled to measure the position of the joint connectors through the cable due to the change of the variable resistance. .

2, the sensing module 120 is coupled with a potentiometer 121 and a spring 122, and a stopper 123 for controlling elasticity of the spring is installed at one end of the spring 122 do. 2, the position measuring cables 141 are connected to each other. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. When cables are individually connected to the first to third joint connecting parts 111 to 113 on the respective fingers as shown in FIG. 1 Three cables may be coupled to the sensing module 120, and the arrangement of the potentiometers to which each cable is coupled may be arranged vertically or horizontally, or may have an arrangement of a combination of vertical and horizontal arrangements.

The position measuring cable 141 is connected to the potentiometer 121 through the casing 124 of the sensing module 120 so that proper tension can be maintained by the elasticity of the spring 122 interposed therebetween.

In addition, motors 130 are individually mounted on the respective sensing modules 120. The motor 130 is provided with a pulley 131 at its front side and the joint control cable 142 connected to the motor 130 is wound around the pulley 131 to be connected to the first to third joints 111 to 113 . At this time, the joint control cable 142 wound on the pulley 131 is repetitively loosened and unwound by driving the motor 130, and the joint control cable 142, which is applied to the finger by the loosening and winding by the angle of the finger, So that the tension of the elastic member 142 can be maintained.

The driving of the motor 130 is interlocked with the motion information of the position measuring cable 141 sensed by the sensing module 120 and the current generated in the motor 130 is measured by a motor driver And the tension control relationship between the driving force of the motor 130 and the joint control cable 142 is calculated to control the current in the motor so that the tension of the cable that can be transmitted to the joint joints 111 to 113 is controlled .

In this way, the feeling of grip force that can be generated when a virtual object is touched or caught in a virtual reality due to movement of the finger joint can be transmitted to the finger.

4 and 5 are schematic views for measuring the change in length of cables applicable to the wearable hand exoskeleton device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a bending state of a finger in a hand-like exoskeleton device. FIG.

As shown in the figure, the exoskeleton device of the present embodiment has a function of holding a virtual object by applying a predetermined tension to the joint control cable 142 according to the degree of bending of the finger joint when the finger is bent and held or gripped in a virtual reality To be transmitted to the finger.

To this end, when no virtual object is touched, since no force is applied to the finger, the length of the joint control cable 142 needs to be changed in a state in which no extra tension is applied. That is, the joint control cable 142 connected to the motor 130 is wound and unwound through the pulley 131, so that the length of the joint control cable 142 can be changed.

In this case, when the virtual object is touched or held, the joint control cable 142 is loosened or wound in the same manner to change the length of the cable. However, the movement of the finger joint through the position measuring cable 141 is affected by the resistance change of the potentiometer The length of the joint control cable 142 that can be sensed by the finger and transmitted to the finger by a predetermined grip force (force) can be obtained.

The length of the joint control cable 141 is calculated by using the coordinates of A ₁ , A ₂ , B, and C shown in FIG. 5 and calculating the length between the two points. The overall coordinates of the exoskeleton structure Can be obtained by the following equation (1) using the rotation transformation matrix.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, and that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. However, it should be understood that such substitutions, changes, and the like fall within the scope of the following claims.

110. Joint connection
120. Sensing module
121. Potentiometer
130. Motor
131. Pulley
141. Positioning cable
142. Joint control cable

Claims

A joint connecting part separately on the joint of the finger and the tip of the finger;
A sensing module connected to the articulated joint through a position measuring cable; And
A motor mounted on the sensing module and connected to the joint connection part through a joint control cable;
A wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the joint connecting portion comprises a first joint connecting portion, a second joint connecting portion, and a third joint connecting portion, which are connected to the joints of the fingers and the triceps bones, excluding the thumb, A wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable consisting of a connection part and a third joint connection part.

3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the position measuring cable is constituted of a plurality of position measuring cables respectively connected to the first joint connecting portion, the second joint connecting portion and the third joint connecting portion of each finger, the plurality of position measuring cables having different lengths, And a cable coupled to the second joint connecting portion to the third joint connecting portion.

3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the joint connection portion includes a cable support base on which the joint control cable is inserted and supported by the through hole and protrudes from the joint support portion and a cable guide groove is formed through which the position measurement cable is fixed, Exoskeleton device.

The method of claim 3,
Wherein the sensing module is separately mounted at a position corresponding to each finger, and the plurality of position measuring cables are connected to each other to detect a variable resistance change by a potentiometer installed therein.

6. The method of claim 5,
The sensing module includes a potentiometer to which the plurality of position measuring cables are coupled, a spring, and a stopper for controlling elasticity of the spring, are individually installed in the plurality of casings, and the plurality of casings are vertically or horizontally arranged. A wearable hand exoskeleton device.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the motor is provided with a pulley at a position corresponding to the joint connection portion, and the joint control cable is wound on the pulley and connected to the joint connection portion, thereby relieving and releasing the joint control cable through the pulley when the motor is driven A wearable hand exoskeleton device using a cable whose tension is regulated by steam.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
Wherein the joint connection portion and the sensing module are connected to wearable gloves or a wearable member of a rigid body by hand.