Structural Analysis of Upper Arm Exoskeleton for Biomedical Applications

Upper limb rehabilitation exoskeletons worn on the body have many features, such as compatibility with human structure, safety and training, etc. This paper aims to examine the structural strength of the exoskeleton. Using ANSYS Workbench 15, the static analysis was carried out on the human body's upper limb. The study of the various parameters showed that the design of the titanium exoskeleton satisfied the requirements of an exoskeleton for paralytic patients for a load up to 300N; for the stress value and deformation values for various parameters, a safe design of the exoskeleton has been achieved. The comparison of the exoskeleton structure with that of stainless steel, aluminium, and titanium shows that the titanium structure is most suitable for the exoskeleton since it is lightweight and Young's modulus is similar to that of human bone. The aluminium exoskeleton structure will shear when load is applied and the stainless exoskeleton structure is heavier than the human bone. It is concluded from the Finite element analysis carried out on workbench 15 for the three materials, namely, aluminium, titanium and steel. Titanium is suitable for exoskeleton structure construction since it satisfies design criteria as per biomechanical design considerations.