Human-Mechanical Biomechanical Analysis of a Novel Knee Exoskeleton Robot for Rehabilitation Training

Exoskeleton robots are a new kind of wearable assistive and rehabilitation training equipment, with user adaptability and assistive effectiveness being important performance indicators. To improve the comfort of wearers and the effectiveness of rehabilitation training, this paper designs a knee rehabilitation training exoskeleton robot and analyzes its performance. Firstly, the exoskeleton robot is designed to reduce the lower limb movement load by placing the power source and motors at the wearer’s waist, and transmitting power to the knee through Bowden cables. A three-dimensional model of the exoskeleton robot is established. Secondly, a human-exoskeleton robot biomechanical simulation environment is constructed, including scenarios of the human body alone, the human body wearing a passive exoskeleton, and the human body wearing an active exoskeleton. Biomechanical simulations of the human-exoskeleton interactions are conducted in these three scenarios. The results show that the designed exoskeleton does not significantly impede human movement. When wearing the exoskeleton, the force and torque of the knees during squatting exercises are significantly reduced, and the muscle force and muscle activation of the quadriceps and gluteus maximus are significantly decreased, while the impact on the calf muscles is minimal. This verifies the good user adaptability and assistive effectiveness of the designed exoskeleton.