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  Exoskeletons for running and walkingUSPTO Application #: 20070123997Title: Exoskeletons for running and walking Abstract: An exoskeleton worn by a human user consisting of a rigid pelvic harness worn about the waist of the user and exoskeleton leg structures each of which extends downwardly alongside one of the human user's legs. The leg structures include hip, knee and ankle joints connected by adjustable length thigh and shin members. The hip joint that attaches the thigh structure to the pelvic harness includes a passive spring or an active actuator to assist in lifting the exoskeleton and said human user with respect to the ground surface upon which the user is walking and to propel the exoskeleton and human user forward. A controllable damper operatively arresting the movement of the knee joint at controllable times during the walking cycle, and spring located at the ankle and foot member stores and releases energy during walking. (end of abstract) Agent: Charles G. Call - West Yarmouth, MA, US Inventors: Hugh M. Herr, Conor Walsh, Daniel Joseph Paluska, Andrew Valiente, Kenneth Pasch, William Grand USPTO Applicaton #: 20070123997 - Class: 623027000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Prosthesis (i.e., Artificial Body Members), Parts Thereof, Or Aids And Accessories Therefor, Leg The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070123997. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a Non-Provisional of U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/736,929 filed Nov. 15, 2006. [0002] This application is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/395,448 entitled "Artificial human limbs and joints employing actuators, springs, and Variable-Damper Elements" filed on Mar. 31, 2006 by Hugh M. Herr, Daniel Joseph Paluska and Peter Dilworth. Application Ser. No. 11/395,448 claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/666,876 filed on Mar. 31, 2005 and the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/704,517 filed on Aug. 1, 2005. [0003] This application is also a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/499,853 entitled "Biomimetic motion and balance controllers for use in prosthetics, orthotics and robotics" filed on Aug. 4, 2006 by Hugh M. Herr, Andreas G. Hofmann and Marko B. Popovic. Application Ser. No. 11/499,853 claims the benefit of the filing date of, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/705,651 filed on Aug. 4, 2005. [0004] This application is also a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/495,140 entitled "An Artificial Ankle-Foot System with Spring, Variable-Damping, and Series-Elastic Actuator Components" filed on Jul. 29, 2006 by Hugh M. Herr, Samuel K. Au, Peter Dilworth and Daniel Joseph Paluska. Application Ser. No. 11/495,140 claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/704,517 filed on Aug. 1, 2005 and was also a continuation in part of the above-noted application Ser. No. 11/395,448. [0005] This application claims the benefit of the filing date of each of the foregoing patent applications and incorporates the disclosure of each of the foregoing applications herein by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0006] This invention relates load bearing exoskeletal systems for running and walking. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0007] A leg exoskeleton could benefit people who engage in load carrying by increasing load capacity, lessening the likelihood of injury, improving efficiency and reducing the perceived level of difficulty. Lightweight, efficient exoskeletons could also be used to lower the metabolic cost of walking and running. By analyzing biomechanical data, design principles for efficient actuation strategies can be extracted. The exoskeleton must have a structure for supporting the weight of a payload or wearer. The system must also be capable of varying its position and impedance in a comparable manner to that of a normal, healthy biological limb and applying the appropriate torque and power at the joints to assist in forward locomotion. The current invention provides a novel architecture capable of achieving these many requirements. [0008] Exoskeletons have been developed that amplify the strength of the wearer, apply assistive torques to the wearer's joints and support a payload being carried by the wearer. General Electric (1968) developed and tested a prototype man-amplifier, a master-slave system called the Hardiman. It was a set of overlapping exoskeletons worn by the human operator and outer exoskeleton followed the motions of the inner exoskeleton which followed the motions of the human operator. Difficulties in human sensing, stability of the servomechanisms, safety, power requirements and system complexity kept it from walking. [0009] The Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton is described in the paper by Chu, A., Kazerooni, H. and Zoss, A., `On the Biomimetic Design of the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX)`, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 4356-4363 (April, 2005). This lower extremity exoskeleton is attached at the human foot and at the back. The hip, knee and ankle joints are powered in the sagital plane with linear hydraulic actuators. The system is powered with an internal combustion engine that is also supported by the exoskeleton. Sarcos has developed a similar exoskeleton with rotary hydraulics at the joints. Both systems sense the intent of the wearer and the robotic legs walk so as to track the human legs so the wearer does not `feel` the exoskeleton. [0010] Liu, X., Low, K. H., Yu, H. Y., (2004) `Development of a Lower Extremity Exoskeleton for Human performance Enhancement`, IEEE Conf. On Intelligent Robots and Systems, Sendai, Japan, describes initial prototypes and experiments of an exoskeleton to support a payload and are currently developing a full working prototype. [0011] Vukobratovi, M., Borovac, B., Surla, D., Stoki, D. (1990), Biped Locomotion: Dynamics, Stability, Control, and Application, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 321-330, describes several exoskeletons to aid walking for paraplegics. Pre-defined trajectories were commanded by the devices and they had limited success in assisting subjects to walk. The devices were greatly limited by material, actuation and battery technology available at that time. Prof. Sankai from University of Tsukuba in Japan has developed an exoskeleton power assist system to aid people with a gait disorder. This system includes sensors for the joint angles, myoelectric signals of the muscles and floor sensors etc. in order to obtain the condition of the HAL and the operator. [0012] Pratt, J., Krupp, B., Morse, C., Collins, S., (2004) `The RoboKnee: An Exoskeleton for Enhancing Strength and Endurance During Walking", IEEE Conf. On Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, describes a powered, wearable device called the RoboWalker. The objective for this device was to augment or replace muscular function about the human knee by powering the knee joint using series elastic actuators. [0013] Exoskeletons have been developed that amplify the strength of the wearer, apply assistive torques to the wearer's joints and support a payload for the wearer. Several exoskeleton design approaches have employed hydraulic actuators to power hip, knee and ankle joints in the sagittal plane. Such an exoskeleton design demands a great deal of power, requiring a heavy power supply to achieve system autonomy. For example, the Bleex developed at the University of California, Berkeley (Chu et al 2005) consumes approximately 2.27 kW of hydraulic power, 220 Watts of electrical power, and has a total system weight of 100 lbs. This approach leads to a noisy device that has a very low payload to system weight ratio. Further, this type of exoskeleton is heavy, and if failure were to occur, could significantly harm the wearer. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0014] The following summary provides a simplified introduction to some aspects of the invention as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later, but is not intended to define nor delineate the scope of the invention. [0015] The detailed description with follows presents two exoskeleton embodiments of the present invention. In a first implementation, the exoskeleton assists the human user by transferring back pack payload mass to the ground. In a second, the exoskeleton carries the weight of the human. For both exoskeleton designs, a parallel exoskeleton structure is the fundamental architecture to transfer the backpack or human load forces to the ground in walking, running, or jumping. [0016] For the backpack load-carrying exoskeleton for walking, the system interfaces to the human by means of shoulder straps, a hip harness, thigh cuffs, and a shoe attachment. Natural walking kinematics are preserved by collocating the exoskeleton hip, knee, and ankle joints to their biological counterparts. A cam mechanism is implemented at the hip joint to project the exoskeleton hip center near the biological hip center. The cam mechanism corrects for discrepancies between the exoskeleton and biological leg lengths during abduction and adduction. Passive spring elements are implemented at the hip and ankle and a variable damper is implemented at the knee. A non-conservative actuator can add to the hip flexion spring output at the hip in order to add significant positive power during walking. Control systems are proposed to control the exoskeleton as a function of gait cycle both for knee variable-dampers and hip motor components. [0017] For the human-carrying exoskeleton for running and jumping, a parallel leaf spring architecture is shown that stores energy during jumping and running to efficiently transfer the weight of the wearer to the ground. Simple force or contact sensing may be employed to activate a clutch or variable damper at the knee. To activate the exoskeleton knees passively, a weight activated knee unit may be used where the knee automatically locks upon knee compression loading and unlocks when compression forces are no longer borne by the knee unit. Additional elements may be included in the leg design, including a motor in parallel with the leg spring that stores additional energy into the leg spring to augment leg extension in jumping or stair/hill ascent. [0018] The parallel spring and variable damping architectures presented here offer a number of advantages over other devices. Having the exoskeleton architecture in parallel with the human leg allows the stability of the wearer to be maintained. Springs in series with the human raise the center of mass of the wearer and thus destabilize the wearer. Springs in parallel can be disengaged to allow the human leg to swing freely in the swing phase. Also by allowing the wearer's foot to remain in contact with the ground, overall stability of the wearer is maintained. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0019] In the detailed description which follows, frequent reference will be made to the attached drawings, in which: Continue reading... Full patent description for Exoskeletons for running and walking Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Exoskeletons for running and walking patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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