Selecting actuators for assistive exoskeletons involves decisions in which designers usually face contrasting requirements. While certain choices may depend on the application context or design philosophy, it is generally desirable to avoid oversizing actuators in order to obtain more lightweight and transparent systems, ultimately promoting the adoption of a given device. In many cases, the torque and power requirements can be relaxed by exploiting the contribution of an elastic element acting in mechanical parallel. This contribution considers one such case and introduces a methodology for the evaluation of different actuator choices resulting from the combination of different motors, reduction gears, and parallel stiffness profiles, helping to match actuator capabilities to the task requirements. Such methodology is based on a graphical tool showing how different design choices affect the actuator as a whole. To illustrate the approach, a back-support exoskeleton for lifting tasks is considered as a case study.

中文翻译：

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辅助外骨骼的致动选择：将功能与任务要求相匹配

选择用于辅助外骨骼的执行器需要做出决定，在这些决定中，设计人员通常会面临不同的要求。尽管某些选择可能取决于应用程序上下文或设计原理，但通常希望避免使执行器尺寸过大，以便获得更轻便和透明的系统，从而最终促进对给定设备的采用。在许多情况下，可以通过利用机械平行作用的弹性元件的作用来放松扭矩和功率要求。这一贡献考虑了这种情况，并介绍了一种评估不同执行器选择的方法，这些执行器是由不同电动机，减速齿轮和平行刚度曲线的组合产生的，有助于使执行器功能与任务要求相匹配。这种方法基于一个图形工具，该图形工具显示了不同的设计选择如何整体影响执行器。为了说明这种方法，将一个用于举升任务的背部支撑外骨骼作为案例研究。