2019 IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR)

Toronto, Canada, June 24-28, 2019

ChairX: A Robotic Exoskeleton Chair for Industrial Workers

I.D. Wijegunawardana, M.B.K. Kumara, H.H.M.J. De Silva, P.K.P. Viduranga, R.K.P.S. Ranaweera,
Member, IEEE, R.A.R.C Gopura, Senior Member, IEEE, D.G.K. Madusanka, Member, IEEE

over a period of time and used to assist the sit-to-stand and



Abstract— This paper proposes a robotic exoskeleton chair,

named ChairX, for providing sitting assistance for the stand-to-sit (STS) transitions of the paraplegic patients.
industrial workers who need to carry out tasks at different Alternatively, a wearable chair is expected to relieve the
crouched postures repetitively. It can act as a customizable stresses and strains induced in the musculoskeletal system
chair to support bodyweight for relieving the lower extremity when having to keep the lower-limb joints flexed for a
and provide freedom for ambulation when moving between prolonged period of time. Moreover, the worker is supposed
workstations. In comparison to the predecessors, the ChairX is to work at different height levels and needs to continuously
designed to assist the user for assuming crouched positions with shift between workstations. Thus, the wearable chair should
forward- as well as backward-inclined leg angles. Moreover, it deploy and retract to provide sitting assistance when called
is flexible to provide sitting assistance at different heights to upon or otherwise pose minimum restriction to facilitate
ensure ergonomics at work. The ChairX includes a knee- ambulation. Simply, it should act as an invisible chair.
centered locking mechanism on the lateral side and an active
linkage mechanism on the posterior of the leg to support the Major automobile companies such as Audi, BMW,
weight of the user at various seated positions. A mathematical Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and Daimler AG have shown
model was formulated to optimize the system parameters and a keen interest in developing and using the wearable chair
prototype was built to carry out the physical tests. The results technology in recent years [6]. The interest for the wearable
revealed that ChairX can maintain stability and reduce the chairs has been positively affected by the emerging products
musculoskeletal strains effectively, thus has the potential to such as Noonee [7], Archelis, Ofrees, LEX, LegX, Honda
improve the quality of work. Bodyweight Assist, ExoChair etc. (See Fig. 1(A) to (G)).
I. INTRODUCTION Most designs provide sitting assistance at a fixed height and
freedom for walking between workstations. However,
The industry expects sustained efficacy from the factory devices such as Noonee, LegX and Ofrees offer the
worker to maximize productivity. Consequently, the workers possibility to adjust sitting position to three different height
are exposed to cumulative trauma injuries depending on the levels, whereas Archelis supports two sitting positions.
type of work and frequency of activities. The work-related Instead of employing passive locking mechanisms, Honda
musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) can occur at any part Bodyweight Assist [13] and [14] consist of actuator systems
of the musculoskeletal system such as upper-limbs, lower- to bear a portion of the bodyweight. Moreover, joints of these
limbs, upper and lower back, etc. [1]. According to the systems are accurately aligned to the wearer’s knee joint, thus
statistics on health and safety authority report in 2016, 11% pose minimal restrictions during walking. Interestingly, the
of the WRMSDs occur on the lower limb segments [2]. One legs of the LEX Bionics Chair act independently to the user’s
major reason behind the occurrence of lower-limb WRMSDs, limbs. It helps to widen the footing area to improve stability.
is the uncomfortable crouched postures that has to be Moreover, researches have been conducted to provide STS
assumed repeatedly by the workers in their daily routine. assist with active and passive actuation methods. Active
This situation is mainly addressed by applying principles methods usually employ electric motors powered by battery.
of ergonomics at the human-machine interface [3]. The Passive methods use springs to harvest potential energy of
process involves redesigning the work environment as per the body [7], [8] during sitting and release the stored energy to
human factors and targets to minimize requirement for assist standing. Similarly to exoskeleton chair devices, both
assuming unfavorable body postures [4]. However, anthropomorphic [9], [10] as well as non-anthropomorphic
considering the nature of work, crouched postures cannot be design solutions [11], [12] for the STS assistance can be
completely eliminated in certain industries. Automobile [5], found in literature.
aircraft, and apparel are a few of the industries that face this Exoskeleton chair, named ChairX, proposed in this paper
issue where assembling and fitting operations are to be has been designed to remedy the notable weaknesses of the
carried out. The circumstances demanded a novel approach to contemporary designs. Most wearable chair designs have not
support the body of the worker. Thus, the concept of been capable of providing better stability for the wearer since
‘wearable chair’ was introduced to provide sitting assistance the weight has been grounded through the wearer’s foot (See
for industrial workers to perform work at uncomfortable Fig. 2(A)). However, ChairX has been designed with an
heights. The assistive devices for sitting have been developed additional supportive limb which enables the wearer to
assume sitting postures with backward- (See Fig. 2(B)) as
*Research supported by Vice-Chancellor’s Fund University of Moratuwa. well as the forward-inclined leg. Thus the design has been
I.D. Wijegunawardana, M.B.K. Kumara, P.K.P. Viduranga, H.H.M.J. De able to increase the range of motion of the wearer to execute
Silva, R.K.P.S. Ranaweera, R.A.R.C Gopura and D.G.K. Madusanka are the work. Moreover, the sitting postures with backward-
with Bionics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, inclined leg relieve the stresses and strains in the of lower
University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, 10400, Sri Lanka (Phone: +9411-265- limb musculoskeletal system.
0301; fax: +9411-265-0622; e-mail: pubudur@uom.lk).

978-1-7281-2755-2/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 587

 CoG Force flow
through device

Extend
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F) (G) Support
(Folded) Extend
Figure 1. Commercial Wearable Chairs: (A) Noonee Chairless-Chair, Support
(B) Archelis Wearable Chair, (C) Ofrees Wearable Chair, (D) LEX (Deployed) Extended
Bionics Chair, (E) LegX Chair, (F) Honda Bodyweight Support System,
Footing
and (G) ExoChair Exoskeleton. Footing
Area
Area
ChairX is designed to provide sitting assistance for users
needing to assume crouched positions with forward-inclined (A) (B)
as well as backward-inclined leg angles. It can provide sitting Figure 2. Sitting postures of ChairX: (A) Forward-Inclined Leg and
assistance at different height levels to ensure ergonomics at (B) Backward-Inclined Leg.
work. It is an anthropomorphic design and consists of three
main units. They are knee locking unit, leg support unit and A. Knee Locking Unit
ankle unit (See Fig. 3). The rachet mechanism included in the The knee locking unit can lock the thigh and shank units
knee locking unit enables the user to sit at different height at prescribed angles. This is achieved by employing a ratchet
levels with varying knee angles as per the user’s preference. wheel and a pawl mechanism on the lateral side of the knee
The mechanisms included in the leg support unit help to joint. The complete wheel has 36 teeth, thus capable of
deploy a linkage system to expand the effective footing area assuming a locked position at every 100 increment. The pawl
of ChairX. As a result, ChairX is able to provide sitting can be held either engaged or disengaged with the wheel by a
assistance for postures with backward-inclined leg angles. toggle-spring based locking mechanism. This mechanism can
The ankle unit provide means to transfer the forces to the be controlled by a servo motor or by manual means. When
ground while maintaining firm grip on the ground, thus the mechanism is disengaged, the knee can perform flexion/
prevent excessive strains on the lower extremity. extension (F/E) without restrictions.
The paper is structured as follows. Section II includes a The profile of the pawl has been designed to interact
detailed description of the mechanical design of the wearable smoothly with the teeth on the wheel and to ensure effective
chair and prototype development. Section III describes the force flow. The ratchet wheel and the pawl were critically
formulation of the mathematical model for determining the analyzed to determine the stress distribution using finite
design parameters and performance indicators of ChairX. element simulation package in ANSYS. The diameter and
Section IV presents details of the experiments conducted and thickness were subsequently optimized to achieve a factor of
discussion on the effectiveness of the proposed design. safety greater than 1.2.
Section VI concludes the paper with future directions.
B. Leg Support Unit
II. MECHANICAL DESIGN
Role of the leg support unit is to increase the footing area
In an industrial environment a worker may assume two to accommodate backward-inclined leg postures. It consists
types of sitting configurations. They can be termed as of an active linkage system that can deploy a telescopic end
postures with forward-inclined leg and postures with effector to provide additional footing. The linkage remains
backward-inclined leg. ChairX has been designed to assist folded in a compact form posterior to the shank for providing
both forms of sitting postures by using passive locking the freedom for movements during walking. In addition, the
mechanisms at the knee joints. For postures with forward- linkage will remain folded to assist sitting postures with
inclined leg, the user can maintain balance by keeping the forward-inclined leg. The shank and extend support
CoG between the feet. However, for postures with backward- mechanisms in the system are powered by two linear
inclined leg, CoG moves backward away from the feet. In actuators. Leg support is a two degrees of freedom three-bar
order to maintain balance, the footing area is increased with linkage mechanism. Shank support ball screw, extended
the use of a telescopic end effector. In addition, an support ball screw and steel tube connection between ankle
anthropomorphic architecture is proposed for the design to and extend support slider represent the three links. Two
minimize the interference between the human and robotic sliders and the plastic wheels at the end effector represent the
exoskeleton. three moving bodies. Knee and ankle joints of the device
represent two stationary joints. The ball screw bearings,
A wearable chair designed for sitting assistance should which are mounted on the sliders, actuate along the thread
necessarily support a major portion of the bodyweight. The bar by rotating the thread bar. Both sliders move along two
structural system including the attachment units at foot, linear guides to reduce the force applied on the thread bar,
shank and thigh segments are responsible for transferring the since larger forces can bend the threaded bar and create a
forces to the ground. ChairX contains three main units: knee blockage for slider motion. To analyze the fail-safe status on
locking unit, leg support unit, and ankle unit (See Fig. 3). the extended support mechanism, a kinetic study was carried
Design details of these units and fabrication of the prototype out on the leg support system. Subsequently, the stress
are described henceforth. Table 1 includes the design distribution on the extended support mechanism was
specifications for each of the units. analyzed using ANSYS.

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 A

Thigh Plate

Slider
Locked Unlocked
A Spring shaft
Pawl Axle

Pawl Bearings Ratchet Pawl

Ratchet Bearing
Flange Bearing
B Bearing Case
Ratchet Wheel
Shank Straight Knee pin
Plate Shank Straight
Plate

B Shank
C Support Slider
Slider Head Stop

Flange Bearing Mild Steel

Connectors
Extend Support

C Ankle Axle Ball Screw Shank Pad

Extend Support
Bearing Cap
Needle Bearing Slider
Flange Bearing
Thigh
Plate
Bearing Cap

Bearing
Attachment
Plate
Height Adjust
plate Shank Support Motor
Footwear
Sole Ankle Connection
Extend Support Motor

Figure 3. CAD Model of ChairX: (A) Knee Locking Unit, (B) Leg Support Unit, and (C) Ankle Unit.

C. Ankle Unit
The low-level control architecture of ChairX is essentially
Purpose of the ankle unit is to ground the weight during a closed-loop system (See Fig. 4). The wrist-based controller
sitting, standing as well as walking. The unit has provision (Master) send the joint angles to the Arduino controller
for adjustments to align the joint rotation axes accurately. It (Slave) according to the user’s input (selection). Then the
supports only plantarflexion/ dorsiflexion (PF/DF) as the Arduino controller calculates the slider positions and the
device was mainly targeted for sitting applications. Extended motor angles to be rotated. The electric motors are then
support slider was connected to the ankle via a link. For actuated by regulating the voltage. The actual angle from
smooth rotation, link was connected to the ankle axle and to each motor is then taken and send to the Arduino controller
the extend support slider with needle bearings. A footwear to compare with the desired angle. Then, the error is reduced
was modified and attached to the ankle unit firmly. using a PID controlling scheme expressed in (1).
D. Control Hardware VPID = E (Kp) + (E +Epre) Ki + (E - Epre) Kd (1)
Control hardware consist of the components to drive the
two sliders of leg support unit. Sliders are coupled with DC Where, VPID is motor command velocity, E is the
brushed gear motors. Motors were powered with difference between required joint angle and actual angle at a
rechargeable battery and controlled with an Arduino Mega given instant, Epre is the angle error in previous instant.
microcontroller. The control signal for the microcontroller was Appropriate proportional (Kp), integrative (Ki) and derivative
relayed using a wrist controller by wireless means. (Kd) constants were determined by performing experiments.

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 was powered using brushed DC motor (Voltage – 12V, Max
RPM – 730). The extended support structure has been
fabricated from square mild steel tubes using TIG welding.
III. MATHEMATICAL MODELLING
A kinematic analysis was performed for the linkage in leg
support unit to optimize the link lengths. Moreover, the
equations of motion were determined for both leg support
Figure 4. Low-level Control Architecture of ChairX. sliders. Subsequently those equations were used to control
the actuation of the leg support unit. Furthermore, kinetic
analysis was carried out to estimate the assistance of the
device. Moreover, a fail-safe analysis has been performed on
the ANSYS finite element analysis platform for the critical
components.
A. Kinematic Analysis
The leg support unit has been designed by calculating the
link sizes according to the variation of the ‘floor projection of
CoG’ with body posture during STS transition.
Anthropometric data has been used to locate the CoG of the
link segment model. For design purposes, dimensions of the
wearer were determined by considering the BMI values and
height statistics of Asian factory workers. Distance to the
floor projection of the CoG from origin (LCoG) was calculated
Figure 5. Prototype of ChairX. for the above selected body dimensions and ranges of motion
of the joints. Using the above data, link lengths (x, y, z) has
TABLE I. CHAIR X SPECIFICATIONS
been calculated to satisfy the kinematic equations given by
Item
Knee Leg Support Ankle (2), (3) and (4). Fig. 8 depicts all the variables of the system.
Locking Unit Unit Unit
z 2   y sinα - h   l0  LCoG
Actuation 2

Method
Passive Active Passive y cosα + (2)
Posterior to Shank
Lateral to Bilateral to x + y = (l1 - a) (3)
Location Shank Extend
Knee + Ankle
Support Support
(x + y) sin = h+b (4)
Ratchet Ball Screw Drives Pivot
Mechanism
System (2 Nos) Hinge
Equation (2) and (4) has been developed to obtain the
maximum CoG position (LCoG) when linkage fully deployed
Encoder DC Motors
Actuator
N/A with Planetary N/A
and (3) has developed to completely extract the linkage to the
Type
Gearhead (2 Nos) shank in the standing position. In above equations constants a
and b has introduced as length allowances allocated for the
Max. F/E PF/DF
RoM 150⁰/0⁰
N/A
20⁰/30⁰ design features expected to include in the fabrication.
Al Alloy, FRP Al Alloy, Mild Steel,
Furthermore, a solid model animation was developed using
Material
Alloy Steel FRP, Nylon
Al Alloy Solidworks to validate the uninterrupted motion of the
Overall linkage in-between the above two positions due to any
13.4 kg
Mass singularity. Subsequently, an Excel solver model was
N/A – Not Applicable. developed to solve the above nonlinear simultaneous
E. Fabrication of Prototype equations and found the link lengths of the leg support unit.
A prototype was fabricated to test the applicability of the B. Kinetic Analysis
design. The prototype consists of the three units discussed in A kinetic analysis has been carried out to pre-estimate the
previous section. For each limb, two pads were employed to assistance that the device can provide. Therefore, knee torque
fit the device to the limb segments namely shank and thigh on the human model has been determined for two cases: with
(See Fig. 5). Moreover, these pads were fabricated using and without wearing the exoskeleton chair. Equation (5)
Fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP). The Ratchet wheel and pawl gives the static knee torque without chair (τWoEx) and (6) gives
in knee locking unit were fabricated with AISI 4340 Alloy static knee torque with chair (τWEx) where (7) provides
Steel using CNC milling and wire cut processes. reaction force (Fr). Furthermore, the parameters employed to
Furthermore, connecting plates in knee locking and ankle estimate the device assistance are as follows. Equation (8)
units were fabricated from 1100 Aluminum Alloy and defines the assist-ratio and (9) defines the knee torque
profiled with plasma cutting process. Leg support unit consist reduction. Subsequently, both parameters have been plotted
of the extended support and shank support units. Each unit against knee flexion for both types of sitting postures (See
contained a linear actuator assembly of slider blocks, two Fig. 7).
linear bearing guides and a ball screw. The linear actuator

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 Figure 6. Link Segment Model: (A) Sitting Posture with Forward-
Inclined Leg and (B) Sitting Posture with Backward-Inclined Leg.
Figure 8. Experimental Setup: (A) Data Acquisition Method, (B) sEMG
100 Ratio(backward)
100 Testing with Healthy Male Subject, and (C) sEMG Electrode Placements.
Ratio(forward)
Assist Ratio (%)

Reduction (Nm)
Reduction (backward)
75 Reduction (forward) A. Experimental Setup
The DELSYS Bagnoli EMG system is used to extract the
50 50 sEMG signals. Wired sEMG electrodes were placed on
muscle bellies of rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL)
25 and gastrocnemius lateralis (GL). The raw signals received
by the input module were amplified and saved in PC through
0 0 the data acquisition card (DAC). EMGworks software has
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 been used to post-process the raw data and the root mean
Knee Flexion (deg)
square (RMS) of sEMG signals were calculated (See Fig.
Figure 7. Torque Reduction and Assit-Ratio of ChairX at Knee Joint. 8(A) & (C)). The muscle activity testing was carried out for
both with (See Fig. 8(B)) and without exoskeleton support.
 m gr sin(θ  θ )  m gl2 sin(θ 2  θ1 ) 
 WoEx   2 2 2 1 3
 (5) B. Experimental Protocol
 m
 3 3gr sin(θ  θ  θ1) 
2 2
A male subject (25 years, 65 kg and 177 cm) fitting the
50th percentile male population was selected to conduct the
 m2 gr2 sin(θ 2  θ1 )  m3 gl2 sin(θ 2  θ1 )  experiments. The sEMG tests were carried out with and
 WEx     Fr r (6)
  m3 gr3 sin(θ 2  θ 2  θ1 )  without exoskeleton chair for three forward inclined postures:
knee flexion angles of 20⁰, 40⁰ and 600. Each posture was
 m1g (n  r1 sinθ1 )  m2 g (r2 sin(θ 2  θ1 )  n  l1 sin θ1 )  maintained for 80 seconds and the static muscle activity
  signals (sEMG signals) were recorded. Five minutes rest was
Fr    m3 g (l2 sin(θ 2  θ1 )  r3 sin(θ3  θ 2  θ1 )  n  l1 sin θ1  (7) provided between tests. The post-processed muscle activity
l1 cosθ2  r  n sin(θ2  θ1 ) data was conditioned with moving-average filter and plotted
Assist  ratio   WEx  WoEx  x100%
against time (See Fig. 11).
(8)
C. Results and Discussion
Knee torque reduction   WoEx   WEx (9)
The ChairX was tested to provide support for both
Knee torque reduction for both sitting postures remained forward- and backward-inclined leg postures in the proposed
unchanged up to 40⁰ of knee flexion. Furthermore, both range. Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 shows the ability of ChairX to
postures show an increase of knee torque reduction with knee assume sitting postures with forward-inclined leg and
flexion. However, from 40⁰ to 60⁰ of knee flexion, knee backward-inclined leg respectively. Moreover, ChairX was
torque reduction for backward-inclined leg is larger than that able to provide the freedom for locomotion without any
of the forward-inclined leg. However, the assist-ratio shows a notable obstructions as per the qualitative assessment. The
gradual decrease with increasing knee flexion. The proposed sEMG RMS signals of the three muscles have revealed some
system is capable of assisting 25% to 75% of required knee interesting results during sitting experiments.
torque for a knee flexion range of 5⁰ to 40⁰.
The sEMG signals obtained from the GL were
IV. EXPERIMENTS excessively small for all test conditions. The variation of
Qualitative and quantitative approaches have been used to muscle activity for GL remained insignificant with
evaluate the effectiveness of ChairX to provide sitting increasing knee flexion for forward-inclined leg postures.
assistance. In qualitative evaluation, the test subject assumed Therefore, only muscle activities of RF and VL have been
both forward-inclined and backward-inclined leg postures in compared in the plots for the two cases: with ChairX and
the proposed range in steps of 20⁰ increments. Furthermore, without ChairX. For both muscles, at 40⁰ and 60⁰ the sEMG
freedom for movement when walking with the exoskeleton RMS signals, with the assistance of ChairX has shown a
was observed and feedback recorded. Surface notable reduction compared to the sEMG RMS signals
electromyography (sEMG) signals were used to quantitively without the assistance of the ChairX. However, for 20⁰ knee
evaluate the effects of ChairX. The experimental setup, flexion, muscle activity of VL shows a relatively smaller
protocol and results of the tests are described in this section. reduction (See Fig. 11).

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 x 10-4 Muscle Activity for Knee Flexion at 60⁰
0.0006

sEMG RMS (V)

0.0004

0.0002

0
Figure 9. Sitting Postures of Forward-Inclined Leg. (A) Knee Flexion x010-4 10Muscle Activity
20 for30Knee Flexion
40 at 40⁰50 60
0.0006 Time(s)
0⁰, (B) Knee Flexion 20⁰, (C) Knee Flexion 40⁰, and (D) Knee Flexion 60⁰. Without ChairX - RF
Without ChairX - VL

sEMG RMS (V)

0.0004

0.0002

0
x010-4 10Muscle Activity
20 for30Knee Flexion
40 at 20⁰50 60
0.0006 Time(s)
Without ChairX - RF

sEMG RMS (V)

Without ChairX - VL
Figure 10. Sitting Postures of Backward-Inclined Leg. (A) Knee Flexion 0.0004
0⁰, (B) Knee Flexion 10⁰, (C) Knee Flexion 20⁰, and (D) Knee Flexion 30⁰.
0.0002
Alternatively, considering RF, for sitting posture with 200
of knee flexion, sEMG RMS value shows few intersections 0
between two cases during the initial 25 seconds of the test 10 0 20 30 40 50 60
cycle. Nevertheless, in the next 35 seconds the sEMG RMS Without ChairX - RF Without ChairX - VL Time(s)
value for test performed with assistance from device, is lower With ChairX - RF With ChairX - VL
than the results for test without assistance from the device. Figure 11. sEMG RMS results for leg forward inclined sitting postures
with 20⁰, 40⁰ and 60⁰ knee flexion.
Considering the above behavior of sEMG it can be seen that
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