Proceedings of 2017 IEEE
International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation
August 6 - 9, Takamatsu, Japan
Research on the Cable-pulley Underactuated
Lower Limb Exoskeleton
Yang Liu, Yongsheng Gao, Feiyun Xiao, Jie Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System
Harbin Institute of Technology
Harbin, Heilongjiang , 150080, China
gaoys@hit.edu.cn
Abstract - A wide variety of lower limb exoskeletons have
been applied in the fields of load-carrying augmentation, walking
assistance, and rehabilitation training. The traditional
exoskeleton based on fully actuated joints can provide powerful
assistance for human motion, while it is bulky requiring a large
energy consumption, which limits its application. The passive and
quasi-passive exoskeletons are weak in the load-carrying
condition due to the lack of active actuators. The traditional
underactuated exoskeleton with only one joint actuated generally
has limited power assistance. As for soft exoskeleton,
uncomfortable feeling resulting from the pressure generated by
cable tension on muscles are unavoidable. To compensate these
drawbacks, this paper presents a lower limb exoskeleton based
on the cable-pulley underactuated principle. By studying the
synergies of torque and power assistance at the joints and
designing the control strategy, a single cable will be able to drive
the hip joint and the knee joint simultaneously, which can
reduce the number of actuators. Considering the human-
exoskeleton interactive dynamics, a biological method is utilized
to evaluate the performance of the exoskeleton. Finally, the
contrast simulation results demonstrate that the exoskeleton
proposed in this paper can effectively provide power
augmentation in load-carrying walking without interfering the
human motion and the control strategy is feasible.
Index Terms - lower limb exoskeleton, underactuated
mechanism, dynamics, simulation
I. INTRODUCTION
Lower limb exoskeleton should be in harmony with
human movement, and it is served as an assistance device to
provide power assistance for load-carrying condition. For the
traditional fully actuated lower limb exoskeleton, there are
number of powerful actuators in joints, which allows the user
to lift a heavy object. However, the energy consumption is
large, which brings up the challenge of battery energy storage
technology or other large energy storage methods [1].
Moreover, the inertia force generated by exoskeleton is large
in the motion, which limits the velocity of the exoskeleton. As
for the passive and quasi-passive exoskeleton, the load force is
transferred to the ground by the exoskeleton structure, which
reduces the pressure generated by load on human body. At the
same time, by adding elastic energy storage components in the
joints, the bio-energy economy is improved. However, in the
experiment, the consumption of oxygen of the wearer
increased by 10% than the condition without exoskeleton.
978-1-5090-6759-6/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Additionally, the passive and the quasi-passive exoskeleton
[2] cannot provide positive assistance power for the load-
carrying walking. For the traditional underactuated
exoskeleton [3], fewer actuators are used to reduce the overall
mass of the exoskeleton and the inertia of the movement of the
leg bar. The underactuated exoskeleton with only one joint is
actuated generally, so the ability of power assistance is
limited. A new concept of soft exoskeleton using the Bowden
cable to drive the ankle joint was proposed by Harvard [4].
And it allows only 15% of the total torque required by the
joints to be delivered [5].Nonetheless, when a large tension is
provided by the cable, uncomfortable feelings generated by
the cable pressure on muscles will occur. This limits the
assistance performance of the soft exoskeleton.
Evidence from [6] suggests that the cable-pulley
mechanism is suitable for low inertia and lightweight robotic
devices. And the literature [7] shows that the cable-pulley
mechanism applied in the field of underactuated dexterous
hand enables a single motor to drive multiple joints movement
simultaneously. It increases the ability of the dexterous hand
to adapt to different shapes of objects and reduces the number
of actuators and the difficulty of control. This underactuated
concept is different from the traditional underactuated
exoskeleton concept that a single actuator drives a single joint
generally [8]. This approach takes into account both the small
number of actuators and multiple joints power assistance. And
the successful application in the dexterity hand field provides
us with a new idea to design an exoskeleton which has small
number of actuators with multiple joints actuated by a single
cable.
To compensate these drawbacks of the exoskeleton
reviewed above, this paper proposes a lower limb exoskeleton
based on the cable-pulley underactuated principle. We focus
on the research of synergies of torque and power assistance of
coupled joints. The hip joint and the knee joint can be actuated
simultaneously by only a single actuator in this paper. Firstly,
the model with coupled joints of the lower limb exoskeleton
was modeled. Then the dynamics of the mechanism was
analyzed by the principle of virtual work. Following that, the
control strategy of synergies of torque and power assistance in
the joints was exploited. Finally, the contrast simulation of
load-carrying walking without exoskeleton and with
exoskeleton indicates that the proposed exoskeleton could
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effectively provide power augmentation in load-carrying
walking.
II. MECHANICAL DESIGN OF LOWER LIMB EXOSKELETON
A. Structure of lower limb exoskeleton
The mechanical structure of the proposed lower limb
exoskeleton is shown in Fig.1. There are thirteen DOFs in the
exoskeleton shown by the dash-dotted lines in Fig.1 with two
DOFs at the hip joint, one DOF at the knee joint, three DOFs
at the ankle joint, and one rotational DOF about the spine.
Among them, the hip joint and the knee joint are actuated
simultaneously by only a single actuator per leg in sagittal
plane. And the other DOFs are actuated passively. The range
of the exoskeleton motion is the same as the range of human
motion and the stopper mechanism is designed to ensure the
safety of the human body. Moreover, the lengths of the thigh
and shank rods of the exoskeleton are adjustable for different
individuals.
Fig. 1 Exoskeleton mechanical structure and distribution of degrees of
Freedom (The hip and knee joints have a similar structure )
The thigh rod and the hip pulley rotate about the same
axis independently. Similary, the shank rod and the knee
pulley can also rotate about another axis independently. The
winding method of the cable is shown in Fig.2. The cable is
first wound several circles around the drive pulley to ensure
the enough elongation of the cable and one end of the cable is
fixed on the driving pulley. Then the cable is wound on the
right side of the hip pulley. After being wound one circle
around the hip pulley, the cable is wound on the right side of
the knee pulley similarly. Finally, after being wound one
circle around the knee pulley, the other end of the cable is
fixed on the shank rod.
To achieve the feedback control of cable tension and
position, the force sensors and position sensors are needed. An
encoder is mounted on the end of the motor shaft to measure
the motor speed. And the travel distance of the cable can be
obtained by the relation calculation of cable drive transmission.
The tension sensor is mounted on the cable, so that the tension
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can be measured by the tension sensor. In order to detect
human motion intentions, there are encoders mounted on the
joints and pressure sensors mounted on the foot. These sensors
are combined to detect the current gait cycle percentage to
provide real-time control of cable tension.
Fig. 2 Winding method of the cable-pulley mechanism
B. Principle of cable-pulley udneractuated mechanism
Due to the transmission of the cable, there are some
limiations between the hip joint and the knee joint. Actually,
cable-pulley underactuated mechanism is an evolution of the
metamorphic mechanism [9]. The traditional mechanism has a
fixed topology, with a fixed number of components and
DOFs. In contrast to that, the mobility of the metamorphic
mechanism can be changed in the process of continuous
motion. In other words, the remaining DOFs of metamorphic
mechanism can still be able to motion even though some
DOFs are constrained. For example, when the knee joint
reaches the extreme position, the rest DOFs of the hip joint
can still be in involved in the motion. This characteristic of the
metamorphic mechanism makes it possible to adapt to the
shape and size changes of the objects.
For the lower limb exoskeleton based on the principle of
the cable-pulley underactuated mechanism, the human lower
limb corresponds to the object whose shape and size is
continuously changing. In the motion process, exoskeleton
constantly adapts to the shape and size changes of the human
lower limb. Once appropriate travel distance of the cable is
given, the exoskeleton motion of the hip joint and the knee
joint can be distributed by the human motion during the
adaptive process. Thus, the motion synergy of the hip joint
and the knee joint is achieved.
At the hip joint and the knee joint, flexor or extensor
torque can be provided. Therefore, there are a total of 22=4
combinations, and the combination shown in Fig. 2 is selected
in this paper. If a suitable time window is selected to provide
torque assistance for the joints, the synergies of torque and
motion in the coupled joints can be achieved [10]. And a
single cable is able to drive multiple joints simultaneously.
III. DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF THE ROBOTIC LEG
A. Analysis of the motion constraint of the cable-pulley
mechanism
The hip joint and the knee joint are actuated by a single
cable in Fig. 2-a. Let xs be the travel distance of the cable.
  
xs and xs represent the moving speed of the cable and the
moving acceleration of the cable respectively. Generalized
coordinates q1 and q2 are rotational angles of the hip joint and
the knee joint respectively. rhip is the hip pulley radius. rknee is
the knee pulley radius. The relation between the travel
distance of the cable and the rotational angles of the joints is
shown in Fig.2-b. The travel distance xs can be written as:
x  AB  AC  CD
s
  DE (1)
In formula (1), AC  0 ( d1 is a constant), DE  0 ( d 2 is a
constant),     q r . The travel distance x of the
AB  q1rhip , CD 2 knee s
cable is only related to the contact arc length of the cable and
the pulley. The relation among travel distance xs , moving
 
speed xs and moving acceleration xs of the cable is obtained.
 xs  q1rhip  q2 rknee

 
 Substituting the formula (5), (6) into (4), the relation
 x s  q1 rhip  q 2 rknee
 
 
 x s  q1 rhip  q 2 rknee
 can be derived.
B. Dynamic model of the robotic leg
The dynamic equation of exoskeleton leg is established
by the Lagrange method. The general dynamic equation is
obtained,
  
D ( q ) q  H ( q, q ) q  G ( q )  
T
where q  [q1 , q2 ]T and    1 , 2  . q  R 21 is a generalized
coordinates vector of rotation angles of the hip joint and the
knee joint.   R 21 is a generalized torque vector.  1 and
2 represent the driving torque at the hip and the knee
generated by the cable tension T respectively. In the case of
ignoring the friction between the cable and the pulley, the
tension of cable is equal in every part. D(q)  R 2 2 is a inertia
 Thus, once the cable winding method is determined, the
matrix. H (q, q)  R 22 is a centripetal force and the Coriolis
force matrix. G (q)  R 21 is a gravitational torque vector.
Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of the two-link mechanism and the cable-pulley
mechanism system( xs is the travel distance of the cable outside the system.
S is the remaining length of the cable inside the system)
The schematic of the two-link mechanism and the cable-
pulley mechanism system is shown in Fig. 3.Once the driving
tension of the cable is applied in the system, the shape and
size of the cable-pulley underactuated mechanism will change.
xs is the travel distance of the cable outside the system. S is
the remaining length of the cable inside the system. The
relation among the cable travel distance, the cable tension, the
angle and the generalized torque of the joint can be obtained
using formula (4) of the principle of virtual work.
 W  T  xs    q (4)
Due to the total length of the cable is a constant, the
relation between xs and S : xs  S  cons tan t is obtain.
Based on the above analysis, we have:
xs S
 0 (5)
q q
 xs xs
 (6)
 q q
(2)
among the cable travel distance, the cable tension, the
generalized coordinates and the generalized torque of the joint
x S
  ( s )T T  ( )T T  J S (q)T T (7)
q q
IV. LOWER LIMB EXOSKELETON CONTROL STRATEGY
(3)
A. Time window selection
A single motor is used to drive the two coupled joints
simultaneously. To achieve the torque synergy and the joint
motion compatibility, a suitable time window should be
selected to provide torque assistance for the joints. And the
goal is to maximize the torque and power augmentation by
selecting a suitable time window.
Firstly, only flexor or extensor torque of the joint can be
provided by the cable. Whether flexor torque or extensor
torque is determined by the winding method of the cable.
torque polarity of the hip joint and the knee joint is required
unchangeable. Secondly, the positive power is required to
provide power assistance. The relation between the cable
tension and the power can be obtained by the formula (8).
From the formula (8), it indicates that when the direction of
the torque generated by the cable coincides with direction of
the link angular velocity, the positive power will be generated
by the cable tension.
P  T v  T r     (8)
The torque peak and the power of the joints are two
important indicators to evaluate the power augmentation
effect. The time window should be selected to cover one or
several torque peaks and a large percentage of the gait cycle.
The time window should also cover the concentrated period of
positive power. Under the condition of human load-carrying
walking with 50kg without exoskeleton, the torque curves of
the human hip and the knee joint of two cycles are shown in
Fig.4.And the hip and knee joints power curves are shown in
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Fig.5. The time window is marked with several rectangles.
Among the time windows in Fig.4, the second and the fourth
time windows account for a large percentage of gait cycle, and
in these windows, the torque directions of the hip joint and the
knee joint are unchangeable. Moreover, the Fig.5 illustrates
that in the second window and the fourth window, large power
is consumed by the hip. And the second and the fourth time
windows cover most of the positive power period of the knee.
Consequently, in this article, the second and the fourth time
windows are selected to provide power assistance.
Fig.4 The hip and knee joints torque curves of human load-carrying walking
with 50kg without exoskeleton(The red solid curve represents the hip torque
curve. The yellow solid curve represents the knee torque curve. The black
solid curve represents the command hip torque curve. The blue solid curve
represents the command hip torque curve.)
Fig.5 The hip and knee joints power curves of human load-carrying walking
with 50kg without exoskeleton(The red solid curve represents the hip power
curve. The yellow solid curve represents the knee power curve.)
B. Force trajectory design
The walking process of human body lower limb is a
periodic rhythmic motion, and the joint torque is periodically
changing. The driving torque generated by the cable is
delivered to the human lower limb to assist the human motion.
The designed transmission system allows the   50% total
torque to be delivered to the human hip and knee joints.
The radiuses of the hip pulley and the knee pulley are
designed independently because of the different motion
characteristics. Since the torque peak is an important indicator
to evaluate the power augmentation effect. According to the
torque peak ratio of the hip joint and the knee joint, the pulley
radius ratio  of the hip joint and the knee joint is determined
by formula(9).
r 
  hip  hip _ torque _ peak (9)
rknee  knee _ torque _ peak
The cable tension is nearly equal in every part of the
cable. When the cable tension changes, the hip and the knee
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joint torque will be proportionally changed. Since both the
energy consumption and the torque peak of the hip joint is
larger than the knee joint. The hip torque curve is selected as a
reference to calculate the command torque. The relation
between the command torque curves and human joint torque
curves are determined by equations (10) and (11). The
designed command torque curves are shown in Fig.4.
 command _ hip _ torque     hip _ torque (10)
 command _ knee _ torque    hip _ torque (11)
The tension signal can be obtained by the tension sensor.
The driving torque design of the joint can be eventually
converted to the force trajectory design of the cable using the
formula(12).
 command _ hip _ torque  command _ knee _ torque
Freference   (12)
rhip rknee
C. Controller design
Admittance controller is suitable for the small stiffness
environment of the cable transmission. Thus, the admittance
controller based on the position control is applied. The
admittance controller structure is shown in Fig.6. The inner
loop of the controller structure is the position feedback loop
and the outer loop is the force feedback loop. The designed
force trajectory is pre-stored in the controller. The foot
pressure sensor and the joint encoders are used to detect the
current gait cycle percentage to achieve real-time control of
the force.
The cable tension signal Fexoskeleton is obtained as a
feedback signal by the tension sensor, and the designed
tension curve is used as the reference tension Freference .The
force error F can be calculated by the formula (13), which is
used as the admittance controller input signal.
F  Freference  Fexoskeleton (13)
The relation between the force error and the desired
position xs _ desired is:
 
M d x s _ desired  Dd x s _ desired  K d xs _ desired  F (14)
The transfer function of the admittance controller is
derived,
1
Gd ( s )  2 (15)
M d s  Dd s  K d
M d is the virtual inertia. Dd is the virtual damping and K d is
the virtual stiffness.
Fig.6 The structure diagram of admittance controller
V. SIMULATION
A. Biological modeling
 In this paper, a nineteen-link human model was
established. There are 20 triaxial joints and 60 DOFs
(regardless of hand DOFs) in the model. The number and the
distribution of the degrees of freedom is very closer to the
human. And the biomechanics software LifeModeler is used
to establish the human model of a 65 kg, 20-year-old and 175
cm man. The towing model of human is shown in Fig.7. When
the inverse dynamic simulation is performed, the attachment
points are towed by the towing points. And the motion of the
human model is determined by the towing points motion
spline generated by the motion data captured by the 3D
motion analysis system. During the inverse dynamic process,
the torque changing process is recorded by the joints. When Fig.8 The walking simulation animation of load-carrying model without
the direct dynamic simulation is performed, the torque exoskeleton(The contact force is marked with the red arrows.)
changing process is repeated by the joints.
C. Load-carrying simulation with exoskeleton
Considering the human-exoskeleton interactive dynamics,
the bushing force (force and torque in three dimensions in
ADAMS) is used as the connecting force between the human
model and the exoskeleton. The command force is applied in
the exoskeleton to assist the human load-carrying walking.
And the control strategy introduced above is applied in this
simulation. The walking simulation animation of is shown in
Fig.9. Under the condition of load-carrying model with
exoskeleton, the torque peak of human hip joint is -70.81 Nm
shown by the dotted curve in Fig.10. The power of the human
hip joint is shown by the dotted curve in Fig.11.The torque
peak of the human knee joint is -51.62 Nm shown by the
dotted curve in Fig.12. The power of the human knee joint is
shown by the dotted curve in Fig.13. The contrast results of
the torque peaks are shown in TABLE I.

Fig.7 Towing model of human in LifeModer(The red points represent the

attachment points. The yellow points represent the towing points)

B. Load-carrying simulation without exoskeleton

Based on the biological human model, the 50 kg -load-
carrying model without exoskeleton is established in the
ADAMS. The contact force between the legs and ground
produces a normal force and a transverse friction force based
on parameters input by the user. With the reference of friction
force of the normal level walking in actual environment in
literature [11], [12], the static coefficient is set to 0.8 and the Fig.9 The walking simulation animation of load-carrying model with
dynamic coefficient is set to 0.25. The contact force is marked exoskeleton(The contact force is marked with the red arrows.)
with the red arrows in Fig.8. The direct dynamic simulation is
performed. The walking simulation animation of the load- TABLE I. RESULTS OF THE CONTRAST SIMULATION

carrying model without exoskeleton is shown in Fig.8. Under

Without With Reduce
the condition of load-carrying walking without exoskeleton, Joint Parameters
exoskeleton exoskeleton proportion
the torque peak of human hip joint is 103.24 Nm shown by the
solid curve in Fig.10. The power of human hip joint is shown Hip peak torque(Nm) 103.24 -70.81 31.4%
by the solid curve in Fig.11.The torque peak of human knee Knee peak torque(Nm) -76.01 -51.62 32.1%
joint is -76 Nm shown by the solid curve in Fig.12. The power
of human knee joint is shown by the solid curve in Fig.13.

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Fig.10 Hip torque curve without exoskeleton and with exoskeleton contrast
Fig.11 Hip power curve without exoskeleton and with exoskeleton contrast
Fig.12 Knee torque curve without exoskeleton and with exoskeleton contrast
Fig.13 Knee power curve without exoskeleton and with exoskeleton contrast
Fig.14 Hip angle curve without exoskeleton and with exoskeleton contrast
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Fig.15 Knee angle curve without exoskeleton and with exoskeleton contrast
VI. DISCUSSION
From the whole gait cycle, comparing the condition of
load-carrying walking with exoskeleton to the condition of
load-carrying walking without exoskeleton, the torque peaks
and the power of the human joints are both significantly
reduced. Moreover, the angle curves of the human joints
shown in Fig.14 and Fig.15 are almost coincident in the two
conditions. It demonstrates that the human walking was not
interfered by the exoskeleton.
In other hands, the interactive dynamics between the
human body and the exoskeleton should be considered in the
power augmentation evaluation [13]. In the literature [13], a
human walking gait simulation was made through the
establishment of neuromuscular walking model. The model
was established with only 19 DOFs to reduce the complexity
of the human model. Only the DOFs in the sagittal plane were
actuated. The accuracy of the simulation was possibly reduced
by this simplification. In this paper, a biological model whose
number and distribution of the degrees of freedom is very
closer to the human was applied in the simulation.
As a consequence, the results indicate that the
exoskeleton proposed can effectively provide power
augmentation in load-carrying walking without interfering the
human motion.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a cable-pulley underactuated principle-
based lower limb exoskeleton is proposed. A single cable is
able to drive the hip joint and the knee joint simultaneously
using synergies of torque and power assistance, which reduces
the number of actuators. Moreover, the control strategy of
exoskeleton is designed by selecting a suitable time window,
which can achieve the synergies of torque and joint motion of
coupled joints. The human-exoskeleton interactive dynamics
is considered through the biological method. The biological
method is suitable to evaluate the performance of the
exoskeleton. In the simulation, the torque and power required
by level walking are both reduced by the assistance of the
exoskeleton. The simulation results demonstrate that cable-
pulley underactuated principle-based lower limb exoskeleton
can effectively provide power augmentation in load-carrying
walking without interfering the human motion and the control
strategy is feasible.
In future, the prototype of the designed exoskeleton will be
built and applied in the rehabilitation of human lower limb.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
 This work is supported by Resrach supported by National
Key Technology Support Program of China under Grant
2015BAF01B03.
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