Active, Quasi-Passive, Pneumatic, and Portable Knee Exoskeleton with Bidirectional Energy Flow for Efficient Air Recovery in Sit-Stand Tasks

While existing literature encompasses exoskeleton-assisted sit-stand tasks, the integration of energy recovery mechanisms remains unexplored. To push the boundaries further, this study introduces a portable pneumatic knee exoskeleton that operates in both quasi-passive and active modes, where active mode is utilized for aiding in standing up (power generation), thus the energy flows from the exoskeleton to the user, and quasi-passive mode for aiding in sitting down (power absorption), where the device absorbs and can store energy in the form of compressed air, leading to energy savings in active mode. The absorbed energy can be stored and later reused without compromising exoskeleton transparency in the meantime. In active mode, an air pump inflates the pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM), which stores the compressed air, that can then be released into a pneumatic cylinder to generate torque. All electronic and pneumatic components are integrated into the system, and the exoskeleton weighs 3.9 kg with a maximum torque of 20 Nm at the knee joint. The paper describes the mechatronic design, mathematical model and includes a pilot study with an able-bodied subject performing sit-to-stand tasks. The results show that the exoskeleton can recover energy while assisting the subject and reducing mean muscle activity by ~31%. Further results highlight air regeneration’s potential for energy saving in portable pneumatic exoskeletons, showing that the proposed device extends exoskeleton operation by ~27%.