Parametric Design Optimization of a Universal Supernumerary Robotic Limb

Abstract

It is a positive trend for hemiplegia with wearable robots in rehabilitation training. Recently, wearable Supernumerary Robotic Limb (SRL) is rising to a hot spot. The difficulty in modeling SRL for hemiplegia is how to make the SRL mechanism match the human upper and lower limbs' size and function simultaneously. In this paper, a simplified model of a four Degree of Freedoms (DOFs) universal SRL (USRL) is introduced. Based on workspace similarity, which is evaluated by Jaccard Index (JI), we establish a multi-object optimization (MOO) model. By applying the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, we have found the optimal SRL mechanism parameters that meet the requirement of the human upper limb and the cane simultaneously. Meanwhile, a few impact factors are discussed briefly in the present proposal. The simulation results show that the USRL has a sound match with the human and could assist the hemiplegia subject as a supplemental limb.