FURI | Spring 2018

Soft Robotics: A Quasi-Passive Knee Brace to Assist in Lifting

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The goal of this research is to create a soft robotic knee brace in order to reduce the risk of injury, chronic pain, and osteoarthritis in laborers tasked with repetitive lifting. For the knee brace, the researchers have developed a design with layered leaf springs that will be clamped together to create a resistive force to lifting. Currently, mathematical models have been created to calculate what forces can be achieved by varying the dimensions of the leaf spring. Future work will include creating the knee brace and testing.