Assessing the Physical Impact of Supernumerary Limbs on a Human Subject: A Simulation Study

Wearable robotic systems physically interact with the human user, and it may alternate human body states. It has been studied to exploit the dynamics of Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRLs) to assist human balancing by constructing a closed-chain. However, only limited studies have explored the dynamic effect of their uses in open-chain configurations. Thus, this study is designed to develop the simulation to analyze the dynamic effect of open-chain configured SRLs on the human subject. Using simulation, the study investigated the applied torque between human and robot models, exploring potential applications of SRLs across various factors - including robot configurations, types of motion, and gravity conditions. The results illustrate how changes in applied torque vary with different conditions.