The IHMC Mobility Assist Exoskeleton is a robotic suit that a user can wear for strength augmentation or gait generation. This first generation exoskeleton prototype focuses on providing walking assistance to persons with lower extremity paralysis. The main goal is to successfully enable a person that cannot walk without assistance to walk in a straight line a distance of 15 feet. When in disable assist mode this prototype will rely on the user to provide balance control, and thus an external means for balancing will be required, such as crutches or a walker. Power and control is off board and supplied to the Exoskeleton by means of a tether. Rotary Series Elastic Actuators (RSEAs), which have high force fidelity and low impedance were designed to power the joints. This paper describes the design, test results, future work and potential applications of the exoskeleton.

This video highlights work to date on the Yobotics-IHMC lower body humanoid robot. The robot is a twelve degree-of-freedom robot with force controllable series elastic actuators at each degree of freedom. Control algorithms utilize virtual model control, and foot placement is determined using capture regions. The robot can recover from moderate disturbances and walk on flat ground. Ongoing work is focused on improving robustness to disturbances, walking more quickly and efficiently, and walking over rough terrain.