Extra robotic legs for augmenting human payload and positioning capabilities

The Extra Robotic Legs (XRL) system is a robotic augmentation worn by a human operator that consists of two articulated robot legs that help bear a heavy backpack payload and a portion of the operator's own weight. The design was driven by a need to increase the effectiveness of Department of Energy hazardous material emergency response personnel who are encumbered by their Personal Protective Equipment. Essentially a backpack-with-legs, the XRL system must bear large loads during operation, but also requires a proprioceptive transmission to allow for close physical interaction with the human operator. The linkage and actuator design minimizes the maximum required actuator torque by exploiting torque redistribution using a closed kinematic chain. A prototype was fabricated utilizing insights gained from force analyses and human-robot interaction safety requirements.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Gonzalez, Daniel Jesus.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• H. Harry Asada.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122134

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122134