Upper Body Exoskeleton

At Ekso Bionics, I worked on an upper body exoskeleton designed to help users climb (pullups), get up from a fall (pushups), and lift objects for an extended period of time without feeling exhaustion (top right).

A powerful winch motor pulled on strategic points of the arm (bottom right) and gave the users superhuman strength; they were able to perform multiple pushups and pullups with over 80 pounds of armor on their torso and arms.

If you are more curious, here is a link to the patent: U.S. Patent No. 10,596,059

One of the most difficult challenges was a lack of grip strength during pullups. I solved this problem by designing a set of gloves that transferred the pulling force to a rubber finger flap, which created a large frictional force. The pilot’s finger muscles were only used to maintain the shape of the rubber around the targeted edge.

The winch motor ran off of an Elmo motor controller that I programmed in Elmo Application Studio II. I created a robust state machine to control the different operating modes and made sure that the exoskeleton could always be powered down in case of emergency.

I designed a carbon fiber structure with a stiff sole plate that integrated with the pilots’ preferred shoes. This structure was used to transfer the weight of the upper body exoskeleton to the ground while walking and was also used by the lower body exoskeleton team to apply power to the forefoot. The design started with a 3D scan of the shoe that I imported into SolidWorks. I used the Surfacing tool to create the structure, 3D printed this model, checked how it fit the shoe, and sent the 3D print to a carbon fiber vendor who then used it as a tool to make the final part.