Design and Control of Linkage Exoskeletons in Wheelchair.

In this paper, a mechanical design and control method of a leg-exoskeleton are proposed for a new wheelchair for persons with problems in lower limbs. For the mechanical design, a pedal-cycling actuation method is proposed with crank-rocker mechanism driven by one motor with a simple mechanical structure to guarantee the user's safety. Regarding the master-slave control, the user's motion intention is detected by force sensors on pedals and it is used as the control message for the leg-exoskeleton motion and wheelchair motion. Experiments are discussed to show the characteristic force during the pedalling action. The experiment results give a good inspiration to optimize the control method.