Fondazione Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia

Inail-istituto Nazionale Per L'assicurazione Contro Gli Infortuni

Fondazione Istituto Italiano Di Technologia

I.n.a.i.l. - Istituto Nazionale Per L'assicurazione Contro Gli Infortuni Sul Lavoro

Istituto Nazionale Per L'assicurazione Contro Gli Infortuni Sul Lavoro

Matteo Laffranchi

Lorenzo De Michieli

Darwin G Caldwell

Carlo Sanfilippo

Nikos Tsagarakis

Jody Alessandro Saglia

Andrea Lince

Stefano D'Angella

Simone Traverso

Paolo Uboldi

Nicolò Boccardo

Samuele Cappa

Lorenzo Cavallaro

Emanuele Gruppioni

Gianluca Capitta

Bram Vanderborght

Luca De Guglielmo

Samuele De Giuseppe

Michele Canepa

Andrea Cherubini

Paolo Rossi

Samuel Stedman

Lorenzo Guercini

Giovanni Sergio Milandri

Riccardo Vaccaro

Josephus Johannes Maria Driessen

Stefano D'angella

Nikos G Tsagarakis

An exoskeleton having a mechanism for elastically balancing loads applied to the exoskeleton is provided. The mechanism has a rigid connection element and a rigid housing mutually pivoted to one another about a first axis of oscillation and attachable to respective relatively rotatable parts of the exoskeleton. A lever is rotatably mounted to the rigid housing about a second axis of oscillation. A flexible traction element has a first end rotationally secured to the rigid connection element with respect to the first axis of oscillation and a second end secured to the lever at a securing point spaced from the second axis of oscillation. A compression spring exerts a thrust, away from the first axis of oscillation, against a portion of the lever intermediately between the second axis of oscillation and the securing point to the second end of the flexible traction element.

Elastic balancing of loads in an exoskeleton

An artificial wrist including a static body adapted to be bound to a support; a movable body adapted to be bound to an end effector; and a junction block defining an axis of rotation between the static body and the movable body and including a cable suitable to be moved by mutual rotation of the bodies and around the axis of rotation, and elastic member placing the cable under tensile stress and working in opposition to the movement of the cable to define a rest position in which the cable and the elastic member exerts a zero resulting torque on the bodies and, and an activation position in which they exert a non-zero resulting torque on the bodies and, bringing the bodies and back to the rest position.

Artificial wrist

Underactuated prosthetic hand including base body; first and second prosthetic fingers each hinged to the base body; first control cable; actuator to move the first control cable; and for each pair of fingers second control cable having control ends associated with the first and second fingers; and transmission block to allow first control cable to control second control cable; transmission block includes guide integral with base body and defining sliding axis; movable element sliding along guide; first pulley for sliding first control cable hinged to movable element and second pulley for sliding second control cable hinged to the movable element so actuator, when moving first cable, determines moveable element translational movement to displace second control cable and the fingers; and elastic means opposing moveable element translational movement so the moveable element translational movement opposes elastic means allowing them to facilitate return to moveable element initial position.

Underactuated prosthetic hand

A foot for a robotic exoskeleton includes three rigid foot segments, namely a middle foot segment arranged to be connected to a leg of the robotic exoskeleton, a front foot segment elastically connected to the front end of the middle foot segment by a first set of leaf springs and a rear foot segment elastically connected to the rear end of the middle foot segment by a second set of leaf springs. The foot has laces for fastening the foot to a person's shoe. In the condition where the front foot segment and the rear foot segment are both in contact with the ground, and no load is applied onto the foot, the middle foot segment is not in contact with the ground, but is elastically suspended by the first and second sets of springs.

Foot for a robotic exoskeleton for assisted walking of persons suffering from locomotor disorders

An actuation device () comprising a threaded shaft () connected at one end to driving means adapted to allow the threaded shaft () to rotate about its longitudinal axis (a). A movable element () is provided with a cylindrical cavity () adapted to receive the threaded shaft (), and configured so that a rotation of the threaded shaft () corresponds to a translation the movable element () along the longitudinal axis (a). The device () has two guiding rods (') coupled to the movable element () and adapted to constrain the translation of the latter along a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis (a). Element () comprises a first () and a second () element constrained to each other, wherein the first element () is coupled to the threaded shaft () and the second element () is coupled to the two guiding rods (&#x2032;).

Actuator for exoskeleton

Elastic rotary actuators are provided having breaking units arranged in such a way as to apply on an output member an adjustable braking torque in order to introduce adjustable damping between an input member and the output member in parallel to elastic members.

Elastic rotary actuators

An actuator and a method for controlling the actuator are described. The actuator comprises: an output member rotatable around an axis of rotation; an input member rotatable around the axis and connected for rotation with the output member via a plurality of cylindrical helical springs; a motor assembly arranged to drive the input member to rotate around the axis of rotation; first and second sensors for detecting the angular position of the input member and the relative angular position between the input member and the output member; and an electronic control unit arranged to determine a desired angular velocity of the input member on the basis of a desired value for the impedance of the actuator and to control the motor assembly on the basis of the error between the desired angular velocity of the input member and the angular velocity of the input member.

Elastic rotary actuator, particularly for robotic applications, and method for controlling the same

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Genoa, Italy

Matteo Laffranchi