Wearable robotic devices often need electrical energy. An interesting idea is to collect mechanical energy during walking and convert it into electrical energy to recharge these devices directly. In this article, we built a light-weight robotic prosthesis (1.3 kg) with the feature of self-charging. During stance phase, the prosthetic ankle joint with damping, is driven by human dynamics. The rotated ankle joint backdrives the motor, and the motor works as a generator according to the electromagnetic induction theory. Five subjects participated in experiments to verify the feasibility and five speeds walking were studied (0.7, 0.9, 1.1, and 1.3 m/s treadmill speeds and one self-selected outdoor walking speed). Experimental results demonstrate that the electrical regenerative energy per step is 1.53 $\pm \;\text{0.29}\,\text{J}$ on average. Meanwhile, an average consumed energy per step of the robotic prosthesis is 4.64 $\pm \;\text{0.15}\;\text{J}$, which means 33 $\pm \;5\%$ energy can be returned to the active prosthesis (battery, 24$\,\text{V}$, 2.6$\,\text{Ah}$).

中文翻译：

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下肢机器人假肢人体动力学电磁感应能量再生

可穿戴机器人设备通常需要电能。一个有趣的想法是在行走过程中收集机械能并将其转换为电能直接为这些设备充电。在本文中，我们构建了一个具有自充电功能的轻型机器人假肢（1.3 kg）。在站立阶段，带有阻尼的假肢踝关节由人体动力学驱动。旋转的踝关节反向驱动电机，电机根据电磁感应理论作为发电机工作。五名受试者参加了实验以验证其可行性，并研究了五种速度步行（0.7、0.9、1.1 和 1.3 m/s 跑步机速度和一个自行选择的户外步行速度）。实验结果表明，每步再生电能为1.53$\pm \;\text{0.29}\,\text{J}$一般。同时，机器人假肢每一步平均消耗的能量为 4.64$\pm \;\text{0.15}\;\text{J}$，这意味着 33 $\pm \;5\%$ 能量可以返回到有源假肢（电池，24$\,\text{V}$, 2.6$\,\text{啊}$）。