Towards A Wearable Passive Lower-Limb Exoskeleton Based on the Compact Gear-Spring Mechanism

Exoskeletons have been proven to have remarkable effects in rehabilitation as they effectively provide mechanical support and motorized assistance to people with muscle weakness. Current design methods for such devices often face challenges regarding the weight to be worn by humans and high cost. In this paper, we propose a new passive exoskeleton design that utilizes a compact gear-spring mechanism (CGSM) for lower-limb rehabilitation. The use of the CGSM ensures the exoskeleton is lightweight and also does not rely on batteries and actuators as active exoskeletons do. The effectiveness of the proposed exoskeleton was evaluated using electromyography (EMG) signal analysis by comparing the muscle activity of humans with and without the device. The results indicate that the proposed passive exoskeleton can significantly reduce muscular efforts during rehabilitation tasks, suggesting its potential to enhance the rehabilitation process and accelerate recovery times while maintaining a light weight attached to users.