Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Biomedical Robotics
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1485177

Development of an upper limb passive exosuit for the 2023 ASTM Exo Games

Provisionally accepted
Stijn Kindt Stijn Kindt *Elias P. Thiery Elias P. Thiery Stijn Hamelryckx Stijn Hamelryckx Adrien L. Deraes Adrien L. Deraes Tom Verstraten Tom Verstraten
  • Vrije University Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This paper presents the design of the passive upper limb exosuit that won the design competition in the 2023 ASTM Exo Games. The tasks were first analyzed to provide information about the requirements of the design. Then a design was proposed based on the HeroWear Apex exosuit but with improvements from the competition team members. The four tasks of the competition are discussed in detail, including good and poor execution practice. Experiments are performed to measure the forces generated in the elastic elements that support the back and the ones that support the arms. Flex tests are also discussed to show that the exosuit does not hinder the movement of the user in a meaningful way when it is switched off. The performance during the tasks is discussed and based on this and designs of competitors, improvements to the overall design are proposed for future versions.

    Keywords: Exosuit, exoskeleton, passive, ASTM, Exo Games, competition

    Received: 23 Aug 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kindt, Thiery, Hamelryckx, Deraes and Verstraten. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Stijn Kindt, Vrije University Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.