Design and Analysis of Upper Arm Exoskeleton with

Virtual Reality based Motion Tracking Capabilities

Faisal Khalid Kayshan, Hassan Othayman Al-Qahtani
S. Parasuraman
Department of Aeronautical Engineering School of Engineering
King Abdulaziz University Monash University Malaysia
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 46150 Selangor, Malaysia
faisal.biggie@hotmail.com, engineer.hassan19@gmail.com s.parasuraman@monash
I. Elamvazuthi, Momen Tageldeen M.K.A. Ahamed Khan
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS University of Selangor
32610 Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia 45600 Selangor, Malaysia
irraivan_elamvazuthi@utp.edu.my (Corresponding Author) khanbai@gmail.com
momen.kamal.tag@gmail.com

Abstract— Robotic rehabilitation is the new therapy for This paper discusses the mechanical design and analysis of
patients that suffering from leg or limb injuries. Patient’s second an upper arm exoskeleton. The design objectives are as the
option is to use robotic rehabilitation instead of traditional following:
rehabilitation because robotic rehabilitation consumes less money
and shorter period of time. Robotics rehabilitation can be • the device needs to perform 1-DOF pick up and down.
improved by constructing an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton is an • the exoskeleton design needs to be easy to use and durable.
external structure that contains links and joints attached to the
patient’s body. The challenging development in human-machine • design a mechanical case that will cover the exoskeleton, to
interface is to design product that serves the patient need to give it a better look and to make the patients feel comfortable
rehabilitate the injuries and to develop smart connection between while they’re using it.
the device and the human body. This exoskeleton design is
required to perform one degree of freedom extension/flexion The design and the analysis was guided by using
movement. The device consists of frame, motor, force sensor and MITCLAC for gear analysis, SolidWorks for case design and
casing. In this design the motor needs to develop the required Ansys for force and stress analysis..
amount of torque so the patient can perform the movement
easily. II. CONFIGURAION OF EXOSKELETON
Keywords— Mechanical design, analysis, upper arm, Fig. 1 illustrates the design of the exoskeleton which
exoskeleton, Ansys; consists of virtual reality head mount with motion tracking
capabilities [8].
I. INTRODUCTION
Many patients are suffering from paralyzing diseases and
to follow the higher demand for patients needs to develop
mechanical devices which will help them to perform their
regular activities, exoskeleton devices are designed to fulfill
the gap in medical rehabilitation. Exoskeleton is the new
phase for medical rehabilitation compared to other
rehabilitation robots that limited to clinical use only. The
application of an exoskeleton includes: 1) an assistive device
(human amplifier), 2) a physiotherapy device, 3) a master
device, 4) a haptic device [1, 2]. This exoskeleton is designed
to serve as physiotherapy device that can perform
occupational tasks and passive or active mode of physical
therapy. The development of a high-performance exoskeleton
device is obtained by considering a couple of factors such as Fig. 1. The wearable exoskeleton and vr head mount [8]
motor placement, torque generating, weight and stiffness The system consists of an actuator, a goniometer, an IMU
desired and, force and stress sustaining [3]-[7]. and Virtual reality head mount where a commercial VR box
with lenses was used to focus the L-R images generated on a

978-1-5090-6621-6/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 2017 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Computing Research

mobile phone that is placed inside the VR Head mount and TABLE I. MATERIAL ALTERNATIVES FOR THE GEAR DESIGN [9]
directly in front of the lenses [8].

Material Dens Tensil Tensil Base Bendi Contact Young

III. GEAR ANALYSIS AND SELECTION
ity e e No. of ng Fatigue ’s
In every mechanical process and devices, choosing the (Kg/ Streng Streng Load Fatigu Limit Modul
appropriate gear is very important to ensure the correct torque m) th th – Cycle e (MPa) us
Ultim Yield in Limit (GPa)
transmission. Designing the exoskeleton for the upper arm will ate (MPa) Conta (MPa)
require to develop a gear analysis to deliver the desired (MPa) ct
amount of torque to the motor that will allow the patients to (x106)
perform the moves of lifting and extending [9]. A shaft is Alloy Cast 7870 800 550 50 414 610 206
Steel
required to connect the gear with motor to reach the desired (G17CrMo
power [10]. Gears are divided into different types such as, V511) –
spur gear, heliacal gear and worm gear and bevel gear. Each Heat
gear has its own advantages and disadvantages and based on treated
the application, the determination of the gear type occurs. The Alloy 7870 1570 1350 100 740 1288 206
number of stages is depending on the applicable use of the Structural
Steel T2
gear, some application requires a 2-stage gear system and (684/7-70)
other application requires a multiple gear stages. The diameter – Nitro
to the tooth size can be determined by using Equation (1). case hard
Alloy 7870 965 750 100 730 1180 206
D = N/P (1) Structural
Steel
where, d is the diameter, (34CrNiMo
N is the number of teeth, and 6) -
P is the diametral pitch. Nitridated
Carbon 7870 700 340 100 352 1140 206
Cast Steel
The module and the circular pitch of the gear can be (36Mn5) –
calculated by using Equations (2) and (3) [9]. Tooth face
hard
Nodular 7250 800 480 50 345 550 169
Cast Iron
m = d/N (2) (800-2) –
Heat
P=πm (3) Treated
where, m represents the module of the gear and ܲ is circular
pitch. The gear speed can be estimated by applying equation Table II shows the gear alternatives based on different gear
(4). Thereafter, calculating the torque allows to find the ratios.
amount of power needed to transmitted to the shaft by using
equations (5) and (6) [9]. TABLE II. GEAR ALTERNATIVES BASED ON DIFFERENT GEAR RATIOS
Alternative Gear ratio Torque Mass Factor of
V = ωr = 2πNd/60 (4) No. (N.m) (Kg) Safety
T = Ft x r (5)
1 Ratio (No. 710.21 104 1.25
P=TxV (6) gear/ No.
pinion) =
A variety of materials can be used in gear manufacturing 1.38
that make it challenging to find the best material with the 2 Ratio (No. 854.35 291 2.34
required properties that will allow the gear to function gear/ No.
properly. There are couple materials that most of gears are pinion) =
designed as shown in Table I [9]. In this design, different 1.66
alternatives have been chosen for the gear manufacture based 3 Ratio (No. 1031 186 1.80
gear/ No.
on weight, physical properties and, stress and force sustaining. pinion) = 2
By using MITCALC software, the gear can be designed 4 Ratio (No. 1194 253 2.16
gear/ No.
and analyzed from scratch. In this design, the material selected pinion) =
is alloy structural steel T2 because, the high strength value, 2.32
good corrosion resistance, durability and heat treaded. In this 5 Ratio (No. 2470 72 0.97
gear design, spur gear is selected as a gear type. Determining gear/ No.
pinion) = 4.8
the gear ratio is essential for torque comparison
From Table II, gear alternatives were analyzed based on the
gear ratio to conduct the output torque, the mass and the factor
 2017 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Computing Research

of safety. Alternative 3 is selected because the amount of the

desired output torque which is needed to be more than 800
N.m so the patient can move the exoskeleton easily. It was
chosen due to light-weight design safety factor exceeding 1.

IV. MATERIAL SELECTION OF THE COVER

Selecting the appropriate material is important to have the
desired design. Materials are the substances from which things
are composed. The fundamental science of materials
concentrates at the material structure and properties. Table III
shows the materials with their parameters for the cover design
[11, 12].
Fig 2. Isometric view of the cover
TABLE III. MATERIAL ALTERNATIVES FOR THE COVER DESIGN
The carbon fiber will be used on the upper and lower arm
Material E Y UTS Elongation Poisson's but the motor will be covered with rubber material to give the
(GPa) (MPa) (MPa) in 50 mm ratio flexibility to move up and down. The case will cover the
(%)
Titanium 80 – 344 – 415 – 25 – 7 0.31 – exoskeleton from the outside and it will be connected to it
130 1380 1450 0.34 directly by using strap and the exoskeleton will be presented
Thermoplastic 1.4 – - 7 – 80 1000 – 5 0.32 – to the patient as one device and that will make it easier to use.
3.4 0.40 The strap will be placed on top the joint to lock and connect
Carbon fibers 275 – - 2000 – 0 0.21 –
415 3000 0.28
the cover with patient’s arm. Inside the exoskeleton, a
Glass fibers 73 – - 3500 – 0 0.22 – comfortable sponge will be used between the exoskeleton and
85 4600 0.26 the arm of the patient to protect it from any harm and also to
Kevlar fiber 73 – - 2400 – 3 0.46 give the patient comfort to perform their rehabilitation
100 2800 exercises easily [7].
For the case, a several materials were compared by their
properties based on Table II. Carbon fiber has been chosen to VI. ANSYS ANALYSIS
be the case material that covers the entire upper limb and the Mechanical Ansys software (APDL) is used in this design
lower limb externally and rubber material for the external in order to analyze the forces and the stresses that act upon the
joint. exoskeleton. The exoskeleton is defined in the Ansys as beam,
V. DESIGN OF THE COVER free to move at one side and fixed on the end. Therefore,
measurements have been placed upon on the author’s upper
At this task, the mechanical development of the exoskeleton limb and 3 key points were generated on Ansys work sheet,
includes not only structural design but also actuator selection. the first point is located at the origin which is the point on top
Choosing the appropriate actuator is quite challenging, since of the arm, the second point is located at the joint 12.5cm from
the human joint requires a high torque with lightweight drives the origin point, and the last point is located at 42.5cm away
[13]. Therefore, the mechanical design of this exoskeleton is from the origin.
based on the patient requirements that follows the demand on Therefore, a straight line with circular cross section were
low weight and moderate dimensions. In addition, the generated for three points. The circular cross section radius is
exoskeleton will help those patients who have weak arm 1.75mm. Furthermore, the origin point is fixed in all DOF. In
muscles by giving the force needed to move their arm and that addition, loads were applied at the second point which is
force will be generated by the motor. The exoskeleton will affected by 2 forces, one is the weight of the gear and the
generate one degree of freedom up and down [14]. motor which is 1.266Kg that pressed downwards, and the
Furthermore, in this exoskeleton design, the cover will be second force is the torque that generated from the motor which
manufactured from carbon fiber because it has the properties is 1039N.mm acts upward. The amount of torque is divided on
that will be perfect for the design needs. Also, 2 straps will be two points, the joint and the last point as shown in Fig. 3.
used at joint where the motor placed and a mechanical lock for
the wrist and upper limb. Fig. 2 shows the isometric view of
the design of the cover.
 2017 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Computing Research
Fig. 3. The forces and displacement acting on the exoskeleton
The results show that the highest stress is located on the fixed
point around 5163.41N and the lowest stress is located at the
third point around 8.564N, as shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Stress acting on the exoskeleton
Fig. 5 shows the developed exoskeleton using the gears,
cover design that was discussed earlier.
Fig. 5. The developed exoskeleton
The tested exoskeleton is functioning well with degree of
freedom. This mechanical design can be further improved by
increasing the efficiency of the gear design and the actuator.
VII. CONCLUSION
This paper presented the design and analysis of the upper
limb exoskeleton with virtual reality based motion tracking
capabilities for rehabilitation proposes. First of all, gear
analysis and design were made to ensure the correct torque
transmission is chosen in order to give the required amount of
torque to the motor. Material selection is considered to be a
huge factor in determination of the design weight, function,
and force and stress sustaining. Therefore, in this paper,
different alternatives are presented for cover design and gear
selection based on the desired properties. Then, the cover is
designed to cover and fit into the motor for better flexibility.
Finally, the force and the stress analysis is carried out. .
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