M-SAM: Miniature and Soft Artificial Muscle-Driven Wearable Robotic Fabric Exosuit for Upper Limb Augmentation

Soft exoskeleton devices based on soft actuators have been attracting attention due to their safe human-machine interaction. However, current soft actuation technologies for exoskeleton devices are still limited due to low scalability and high hysteresis. This communication paper presents a new robotic fabric sleeve for upper limb assistance based on fabric garments and hydraulic-driven soft artificial muscles (SAMs) with low hysteresis. Experimental results show a highly linear relationship between input displacement of the syringe plunger and the muscle elongation. A simplified kinematic model was also developed to determine the elbow angle from the muscle length. A validation experiment with EMG signals showed that the assistive sleeve was able to reduce the workload to the user’s muscles. The artificial muscles and the assistive sleeve show great potential for applications in rehabilitation and activities of daily living (ADLs) assistance.