1.

INTRODUCTION
Every four year the world cup inspires million. The 2014 World cup not be kicked off
by the legs of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi Rather be a person who never thought he
can walk again. This impossible can be made possible by using mechanical exoskeleton.
Exoskeleton it take signals from the user brain activity to power his\her step forward. The
exoskeleton is an electromechanical structure worn by operator and matching the shape and
functions of human body. It is able to augment the ability of human limb and/or to treat
muscles, joints, or skeletal parts which are weak ineffective or injured because of a disease or
a neurological condition. Moreover, it merges the machine power and the human intelligence
in order to enhance the intelligence of the machine and to power the operator. The
exoskeleton works mechanically in parallel with human body and can be actuated passively
and or actively. The Walk Again Project is in countdown to show the world for the first time
one of the great achievements so far: during the opening ceremony of the World Cup on June
12 at Arena Corinthians in So Paulo, a paraplegic young adult will make a symbolic effort
using an exoskeleton, or robotics garment, controlled by his brain activity. It will be just the
beginning - as the projects leader, neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, believes of a future in
which people with paralysis may abandon the wheelchair and literally walk again.

Fig 1: Walk again

2. HISTORY
The history of the active exoskeleton can be traced back to the 1960s. The US military
had developed several exoskeletons to augment and amplify the soldier ability for military
purposes. Then, the General Electric Company developed two-armed masterslave
manipulator used for handling radioactive equipment. The master is an exoskeleton type
robot worn by the operator and its motion was reproduced by the two-arm slave unit.
Moreover, the John Hopkins University designed the upper limb exoskeleton type to help
elbow flexion of paralyzed people. Almost at the same time, the Beograd anthropomorphic
exoskeleton was designed for lower limb application. The development of the exoskeleton
has been increased in various implementations.

Fig 2: Ceremonial Kick Off World Cup Football-2014

3. THREE TYPES OF EXOSKELETON

The exoskeleton is the most advanced technological realization and was designed to
enable real time interaction of the brain with the robotics garment. The first prototype tests
were successfully completed. The exoskeletons are initially used by U S military agencies to
enhance the capability of the soldier. Now it is come into the advanced rehabilitation
techniques. The implementation of the exoskeleton can be classified into three main groups:
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Human power augmentations

Haptic interactions
Rehabilitations

Fig 3: Types of exoskeletons

3.1 HUMAN POWER AUGMENTATIONS

Human power augmentations exoskeletons enhance the users capacity on doing
things. For example in the figure you can see a man carrying a wait around 80 kg in his one
hand with one hand. Kanazawa Institute of Technology developed the full body exoskeleton
for augmenting the nurses power to take care of the patient. In addition, University of
Tsukubahas developed some generations of Robot Suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) to
physically support a users daily activities and heavy work. The BLEEX has been designed to
augment the human limb so that the wearer is able to carry significant load easily over
various terrains.

Fig 4: Man carrying weight of 80 kg

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3.2 HAPTIC INTERACTIONS

Virtual reality (VR) sometimes referred to as immersive multimedia, is a computersimulated environment that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world or
imagined worlds. Virtual reality could recreate sensory experiences, including virtual taste,
sight, smell, sound, touch, etc. Haptic interaction exoskeleton implements virtual reality to
the user. It takes the users motion and position of eye, hand, leg etc with various sensor and
give input to control system the control system will give outputs to the user. Nowadays the
importance of virtual reality system increase due its cost effectiveness in analysis.

Fig 5: Virtual Reality using exoskeleton

3.3 REHABILITATION
The rehabilitation is the last exoskeleton application. The rehabilitation exoskeletons
have been developed for many purposes. They are implemented in either the lower limb for
gait rehabilitation or the upper limb. The treadmill gait trainer is one implementation of gait
rehabilitation. These types have very much social important because these exoskeletons have
the capacity to interpret brain signals and allow a paraplegic person to walk again. A
technology that would enable reading electrical signals produced by neurons in the brain and,
from these signals, captures a motor control that could be used by the machine. Then it was
necessary to send the signals back from the robot to the brain, completing the control cycle.

Fig 6: Rehabilitation using exoskeletons

4. DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN MACHINE INTERFACE

It is important to interpret the signal from brain to control the machine and there are
lakhs of signals generating inside the brain and how this difficulty can overcome? The worst
thing is that you cannot implement an electrode deeply inside the brain so it needed to be deal
with the outer core that is the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layered
structure of neural tissue of the cerebrum (brain), in humans and other mammals. It covers
the cerebrum, and is divided into two cortices, along the sagittal plane, covering the left and
right cerebral hemispheres. The medial longitudinal fissure is a deep groove that separates
these two hemispheres. The cerebral cortex plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual
awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. How neuron in the cerebral cortex
outermost layer of the brain are involved in the mode of learning. It is referred to as gray
matter as it consists of cell bodies and capillaries and contrasts with the underlying white
matter that consists mainly of the white myelinated sheaths of neuronal axons. In large
mammals the surface of the cerebral cortex is folded, giving a much greater surface area in
the confined space of the skull. A fold or ridge in the cortex is termed a gyrus (plural gyri)
and a groove or fissure is termed a sulcus (plural sulci). In the human brain more than twothirds is buried in the sulci. The phylogenetically most recent part of the cerebral cortex, the
neocortex (also called isocortex), is differentiated into six horizontal layers; the more ancient
part of the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, has at most three cellular layers.

Fig 7: Portions of brain controlling different limps

The cerebral cortex has separate space for controlling a particular limb. So the
researchers can fix the electrode at a particular position and read the signals from that part for
the corresponding motion of the limb.

5. RESEARCH
Dr Miguel Nicoleles of Duke University and his colleagues set out to study how
neuron in the cerebral cortex outermost layer of the brain are involved in the mode of
learning .The researchers first pick up a monkey and study its responses. For this they use a
throwing motion. For an entire year they record data from 15 to 100s of neurons using
electrode implanted in the part of the cortex that involved in moving the arm and the hand.
Those recordings illuminated something essential.

Fig 8: Research
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Behind the monkeys throwing motion produce consistent pattern in brain activity. The
same pattern is observed each time when monkey move its arms, with this data the team
developed a brain machine interface a system that interprets what user want from their brain
activity and then turn that activity into commands. So that they can control everything from a
cursor on a computer screen to the movements of a robotic arm.

Fig 9: Signals From Monkeys brain

6. LOPES REHABILATION EXOSKELETON

The redesigned exoskeleton robot mainly consists of a brain signal reading helmet,
shoulder motion support part a wrist force sensor and a mobile wheel chair. The exoskeleton
used in world cup uses an EEG CAM helmet rather than implanted electrodes to read brain
activity. The pattern will be interpreted by computer algorithm and the exoskeleton hydraulic
pumps power it movement. The helmet has to be exactly fit to the patients head in the inside,
helmet protects the user head in case of a fall also hold the electrodes perfectly in place to
read brain activity. Scientist did a 3-D scan of patient head and models it by using advanced
modeling software and use of 3-D printer for precision.
An LED system is used for EEG feedback so that their imagination to move the left
side or right side. The LED system on each side of eye so that EEG system actually tells
thinking left or right.

7. PARTS

8. MECHANISM
Recovery from stroke is difficult and the treatment is prolonged hence the
Exoskeleton Suit H1 is designed and proposed in this paper. Enabling these people to walk
using a wearable Exoskeleton Suit which is cost-effective and will enable walking is the real
motive behind the ideology. The exoskeleton consists of Pneumatic Actuators,
Potentiometers, Compressed Air Supply, Micro-Controllers, Flow Control Valve, and DC
Motor with Encoder (Quadrature and Absolute type) as key Components. It is Pneumatically
Powered instead of a high torque motor. The reason is that it will have a better life and less
battery voltage will be consumed compared to a high torque motor and thus making it ecofriendly. Though Pneumatic actuation will be a bit slower compared to that of a motor, but it
will have a considerable high life.

Fig 10: Block diagram

There are two Pneumatic Actuators which are connected to the body by means of
Body Frame of the suit- One is fixed at the back Thigh muscle and one is fixed at the Calf
muscle. There is a Flow Control Valve which is intermediate between the Actuators and the
Main Air Supply Tank and this is responsible for the Speed of Extension/Retraction of the
Piston Cylinder and thereby the Walking Speed of the Person. If this is not used then there
will be sudden extension/retraction which might damage the muscles and skin tissues and
even affect the dynamics of the Structure. The DC motor is mounted on the knob of FCV
(Flow Control Valve).An Encoder is attached to the rear end of the DC Motor Shaft which
will count the turns it has revolved Clockwise/Anti-Clockwise and send the signal to the
Micro-Controller. The Compressed Air Supply will be in the form of Couple of Bottles which
are Airtight with Check-Valve in it and can be easily carried by the person on the back. The
entire structure is made using Aluminum.

9. CONTROL ARCHITECTURE
The left brain controls the right limbs whereas the right brain controls the left limbs.
When we walk, there is continuous synchronization between the arms and the legs. Whenever
right leg is put forward, the left arm swings in front and vice versa. Keeping this principle in
mind, the Exoskeleton suit H1 is designed.

Fig 11: Parts of Brain

To get a compliant active exoskeleton controller, the force interaction controllers are
mostly used in form of either the impedance or admittance controllers. The impedance or
admittance controllers can only work if they are followed by either the force or the position
controller respectively. These combinations place the impedance or admittance controller as
high-level controller while the force or position controller as low-level controller. From the
application point of view, the exoskeleton controllers are equipped by task controllers that
can be formed in several ways depend on the aims.

Fig 12: Types of control system

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The exoskeleton control system can be classified into several groups based on the
model, the physical parameter, the hierarchy and the usage. The variation control system
implemented and utilized today need improvement to meet the need of the next exoskeleton
control system such as the assist as needed, the users intention detection, the modularity, the
safety and the stability. All these aspects have to be considered and incorporated in designing
the control system for the exoskeleton to give better performance and better future
implementation.

Fig 13: Exoskeleton parts and functions

10. TACTILE SENSATION IN WALKING AGAIN

For the act of walking to be as close as possible to reality, it is important for the
patient to also have tactile sensation restored in the paralyzed limbs. For this to be possible, a
tactile feedback technology, or artificial skin, was developed as an essential device for
restoring the sense of touch and perception (the ability to recognize the bodys spatial
location) of the lower limbs of patients who will use the exoskeleton to walk again. The
artificial skin, developed by the group of researchers led by Gordon Cheng, consists of
flexible printed circuit boards, each containing pressure, and temperature and speed sensors.
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It is applied on the soles of the feet for the patient, when walking with the exoskeleton, to
receive a tactile stimulation sent to a region of the upper body such as the arms, at every
touch of the foot on the floor. With this transmission from the feet to the arms, the patients
brain is induced to remap the tactile sensations and restore the feeling of stepping on the
floor, walking as if there were no paralysis.

11. CURRENT LIMITATIONS

One of the largest problems facing designers of powered exoskeletons is the supply.
There are currently few power sources of sufficient energy density to sustain a full body
powered exoskeleton for more than a few hours. Non-rechargeable primary cells tend to have
more energy density and store it longer than rechargeable secondary cells, but then
replacement cells must be transported into the field for use when the primary cells are
depleted, of which may be a special and uncommon type. Rechargeable cells can be reused
but may require transporting a charging system into the field, which either must recharge
rapidly or the depleted cells need to be able to be swapped out in the field, to be replaced with
cells that have been slowly charging. Another important limitation is that it is required to
design uniquely for a patient so that all sensors perfectly suited his/her body dimensions.
Currently the exoskeleton suits are highly expensive. A single suit cost around $25k (around
15lakhs Rs). Since it is in direct contact with the body advanced materials that will not affect
the body are required. Moreover there are no standardization techniques for exoskeletons.
Flexibility is another design issue, and which also affects the design of unpowered hard shell
space suits. Several human joints such as the hips and shoulders are ball and socket joints,
with the center of rotation inside the body. It is difficult for an exoskeleton to exactly match
the motions of this ball joint using a series of external single-axis hinge points, limiting
flexibility of the wearer.

Fig 14: Limitations

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12. THE FUTURE OF EXOSKELETONS

There will be a real Iron man in the future with the help of exoskeleton. Stable,
energy-dense power sources allow sustained operation. Exoskeletons will be commonly used
by all military agencies. You will see paraplegic person participating in the sprint walking
through the road as a common man with hidden exoskeleton inside the dress. Miniaturization
of exoskeleton reduces the cost and is available for common man. With the brain reading
machine in the future there will be a wireless device transmitting signal from your brain so
that you can control everything by just thinking without any action.

Fig 15: Iron Man

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13. CONCLUSION
The exoskeleton is an electromechanical structure worn by operator and matching the
shape and functions of human body. It is able to augment the ability of human limb
and/or to treat muscles, joints, or skeletal parts which are weak ineffective or injured
because of a disease or a neurological condition. Moreover, it merges the machine power
and the human intelligence in order to enhance the intelligence of the machine and to
power the operator. The exoskeleton works mechanically in parallel with human body
and can be actuated passively and or actively.
One of the largest problems facing designers of powered exoskeletons is the supply.
There are currently few power sources of sufficient energy density to sustain a full body
powered exoskeleton for more than a few hours. Non-rechargeable primary cells tend to
have more energy density and store it longer than rechargeable secondary cells, but then
replacement cells must be transported into the field for use when the primary cells are
depleted, of which may be a special and uncommon type. Rechargeable cells can be
reused but may require transporting a charging system into the field, which either must
recharge rapidly or the depleted cells need to be able to be swapped out in the field, to be
replaced with cells that have been slowly charging. Another important limitation is that it
is required to design uniquely for a patient so that all sensors perfectly suited his/her body
dimensions. Currently the exoskeleton suits are highly expensive.
The Cost of the Product is higher To Common People. Bulk Manufacturing Is Not
Possible Due Different Dimension of People A Different Disorders. . It Is Difficult For
An Exoskeleton To Exactly Match The Motions Of This Ball Joint Using A Series Of
External Single-Axis Hinge Points, Limiting Flexibility Of The Wearer. So By Short
Period We Can See The Real Iron Man.

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14. REFERENCES
1. Active Exoskeleton Control Systems: State of the Art - Khairul Anam a,b , Adel Ali
Al-Jumaily
2. Design and development of a hand exoskeleton for Rehabilitation following strokeMd Akhlaquor Rahman a , Adel Al-Jumaily
3. Development of a 3DOF mobile exoskeleton robot for human upper-limb motion
assist - Kazuo Kiguchi , Mohammad Habibur Rahman, Makoto Sasaki, Kenbu
Teramoto.
4. Acceptability of robotic technology in neuro-rehabilitation: Preliminary results on
chronic stroke patients - Stefano Mazzoleni , Giuseppe Turchetti , Ilaria Palla.
5. Walk again project becomes a reality S Thash.
6. Exoskeleton robots for upper-limb rehabilitation: State of the art and future prospects
- Ho Shing Lo, Sheng Quan Xie.
7. Design of Human Exo-Skeleton Suit for Rehabilitation of HemiplegicPeople Shah
Mihir Rajesh

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