Hyundai Wearable Robotics For Walking Assistance Offer A Full Spectrum of Mobility

Customer Story
Hyundai Wearable Robotics Restore Full Mobility

Hyundai used LabVIEW and the CompactRIO platform to create a system that handles complex
control algorithms, remotely captures data, and performs real-time control of wearable devices
for walking assistance.
Hyundai Wearable Robotics for Walking

Assistance Offer a Full Spectrum of Mobility
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"Using LabVIEW and the LabVIEW RIO architecture allowed us to reduce development and test
time for our new robot control algorithm to just one week, compared to one month with a text-
based approach. We are able to prototype with software and hardware faster and adapt to rapidly
changing control requirements."
- DongJin Hyun, PhD, Hyundai Motor Company
The Challenge:
Developing a system that can handle complex control algorithms to capture data remotely from
various sensors simultaneously and perform real-time control of multiple actuators for a
wearable robotics device for walking assistance.
The Solution:
Using the LabVIEW RIO platform, including a CompactRIO embedded system and a real-time
controller with an FPGA control architecture provided by Single-Board RIO, to acquire data
from various sensors and control peripheral units, high-speed communication devices, and
actuators; and using LabVIEW software to acquire reliable data by conducting real-time analysis
and applying various robot control algorithms to dramatically reduce development time.
Read the Full Case Study
Author(s):
DongJin Hyun, PhD - Hyundai Motor Company
The Central Advanced Research and Engineering Institute at Hyundai Motor Company develops
future mobility technologies. Rather than provide conventional vehicle products to customers,
this research center creates new mobility devices with a wide range of speeds for a variety of
people, including the elderly and the disabled. As our society ages, there is a greater need for
systems that can aid mobility. Thus, we are developing wearable exoskeleton robots with NI
embedded controllers for the elderly and patients with spinal cord injuries to use.
In the field of wearable robotics, physical interfacing between the human body and a robot
causes various engineering issues with mechanical design, control architecture construction, and
actuation algorithm design. The allowed space and weight for electrical devices is extremely
limited because a wearable robot needs to be put on like a suit. Additionally, the overall control
sampling rate of the robot should be fast enough that it does not impede human motions and can
properly react to external forces. Also, many questions remain regarding human augmentation
and assistance control algorithms for wearable robots, even though many of the endeavors of
robotic researchers have resulted in successful performances of wearable robots. Therefore, our
group mainly considered the following requirements for selecting a main controller for our
wearable robots:
 High-speed processing of data obtained from various types of sensors

 Size and weight
 Real-time data visualization for developing control algorithms
 Connectivity to other smart devices to provide more convenient functions
System Configuration
The real-time control and FPGA hardware environment ensure reliability and stability by
providing I/O that is compatible with various robotic control devices. For instance, in the process
of building our wearable robots, the overall control architecture drastically changed several times
due to the replacement of sensors or changes in the control communication method. However,
the unique onboard combination of the real-time controller and FPGA features provided by NI
products empowered our group to manage these changes promptly, which helped reduce our
development period.
In addition, adopting the compact sbRIO-9651 System on Module (SOM) device helped us
reduce the robot’s weight to less than 10 kg while maximizing battery efficiency through a low-
power base system configuration.
Figure 1. Wearable Robot System Configuration

Figure 2. Real-time processing, offered by the CompactRIO platform, enabled Hyundai to
address one of their greatest challenges–recognizing human intention.
Why We Chose LabVIEW
The number of sensors and actuators increases significantly to achieve more complex tasks in
robotics, and the complexity of the control algorithms increases exponentially. Therefore,
simultaneously processing all data from multiple sensors and sending instructions to multiple
actuators becomes one of the most important challenges to address in robotics. LabVIEW
supports concurrent visualization for intuitive signal processing for installed sensors on robots
and further control algorithm design in the experimental stages. Lastly, NI products are
expandable and compatible, so we can possibly use smart devices as user interfaces (UIs) in the
future.
Figure 3. LabVIEW Front Panel for Robot Control
Figure 4. LabVIEW Block Diagram for Robot Control
Wearable Robotics for Walking Assistance
Originally, the following types of wearable robots were built:

 Hip Modular Exoskeleton—A modular robot that provides walking assistance to people
with discomfort in the hip area
 Knee Modular Exoskeleton—A modular robot that provides walking assistance to people
with discomfort in the knee area
 Life-Caring Exoskeleton—A modular robot that combines the hip and knee parts to
provide walking assistance to the elderly or people with difficulties moving the lower
half of their bodies
 Medical Exoskeleton—A modular robot that combines the hip and knee parts to provide
walking assistance to patients who do not have the ability to move the lower half of their
bodies on their own
Figure 5. Hyundai Lower-Limb Exoskeletons

Figure 6. Concept of Modular Exoskeleton and Lower-Limb Exoskeleton
Figure 7. Life-Caring Exoskeleton in Use
Following the demonstration of the wearable Life-Caring Exoskeleton for walking assistance for
the elderly at NIWeek 2015, we unveiled a wearable Medical Robot for people with paraplegia,
which was also designed using LabVIEW and CompactRIO. In a joint clinical demonstration
with the Korea Spinal Cord Injury Association in January 2016, a paraplegic patient equipped
with this Medical Robot succeeded in sitting down, standing up, and walking on flat ground. The
patient who participated in this clinical trial is paralyzed in the lower half of the body (injury at
2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebrae) with motor and sensory paralysis, but could walk successfully
with the assistance of the wearable Medical Robot after a short training. Building on this
achievement and current progress in development, we expect to manufacture a lighter and better
product with added functions by 2018, and begin mass production in 2020.
Taking Advantage of Internet of Things Technologies for Future Development
We have research plans for integrating smart devices into the UI to address future challenges.
Currently, robots for people with lower body disabilities are designed to use crutches as wireless
UIs for changing configuration, such as converting to walking, sitting, climbing or going down
steps, or normal mode. Embedding smart devices into this kind of UI can help users conduct
tuning of additional parameters including stride, time for taking one step, or depth/width for
sitting on a chair. Also, data related to walking patterns or normal activity range is useful for
treatment or rehabilitation. Rehabilitation experts or doctors can configure more advanced
parameters, such as forced walking time or adjusting joint movement, to continue to use them for
treatment.
We started to develop the next-generation exoskeleton robot based on wireless technology to

make gait analysis possible. When someone wears this robot, it is possible to identify intention
and walking status by collecting data from an area between the ground and the sole of the foot.
Technology that transmits this data through wireless ZigBee communication is already in place.
This technology can be further expanded now using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. In other
words, you can send information acquired wirelessly to a robot to make it assist with the
walker’s movements. In addition, gathering relevant data can help users identify a personal range
of activities and conditions based on location, and that information can be integrated into the
robot and lead to more comprehensive service. If a patient wears this robot for rehabilitation
purposes, doctors can monitor patient and robot conditions during rehabilitation and deliver real-
time training or adjustments to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of treatment, a good
example of implementation of data information-based technology.
Author Information:
DongJin Hyun, PhD
Hyundai Motor Company
37, Cheoldobangmulgwan-ro
Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do 437-815
South Korea
Tel: +82 (031) 596 0920
mecjin@hyundai.com

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Customer Story

Hyundai Wearable Robotics Restore Full Mobility

Hyundai Wearable Robotics for Walking

- DongJin Hyun, PhD, Hyundai Motor Company

Read the Full Case Study

 High-speed processing of data obtained from various types of sensors

Figure 1. Wearable Robot System Configuration

Why We Chose LabVIEW

Figure 4. LabVIEW Block Diagram for Robot Control

Wearable Robotics for Walking Assistance

Originally, the following types of wearable robots were built:

Figure 5. Hyundai Lower-Limb Exoskeletons

Taking Advantage of Internet of Things Technologies for Future Development

We started to develop the next-generation exoskeleton robot based on wireless technology to

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