Integrated Hydraulic-Driven Wearable Robot for Knee Assistance

Age-related diseases can lead to knee joint misfunction, making knee assistance necessary through theuse of robotic wearable braces. However, existing wearable robots face challenges in force transmission and humanmotion adaptation, particularly among the elderly. Although soft actuators have been used in wearable robots,achieving rapid response and motion control while maintaining portability remains challenging. To address theseissues, we propose a soft-robotic knee brace system integrated with multiple sensors and a direct-drive hydraulicactuation system. This approach allows for controlled and rapid force output on the portable hydraulic system.The multi-sensor feedback structure enables the robotic system to collaborate with the human body throughhuman physiological signal and body motion information. The human user tests demonstrate that the knee robotprovides assistive torques to the knee joint by being triggered by the electromyography signal and under humanmotion control.