Liquid-cooled actuation to achieve greater degrees of freedom and range of motion in untethered exoskeletons

Apptronik Systems Inc., in cooperation with the University of Texas Human Centered Robotics Lab (HCRL) and Huston-Tillotson University Robotics Lab (a historically black college and university HBCU), endeavor to advance the movement capabilities and modularity of the exoskeleton being developed under contract #H92222-17-C-0050. The primary goal of this program is to optimize the range of movement at the joints of the exoskeleton, to achieve dynamic humanlike capabilities, increased the achieved output power of the exoskeleton, and enhance user transparency. The current contract (H92222-17-C-0050) produces a technologically advanced system that delivers capabilities that are as-of-yet unseen in high performance exoskeletons; a parallel effort to optimize the more complex joints and make them modular while improving user transparency would benefit both this proposed development effort and the existing program simultaneously. Objectives of this proposal include complex dynamic joint motions, achieved through powered and passive degrees of freedom, optimized design techniques for modularity in high efficiency, high power-to-weight ratio exoskeletons, and reduction in operator opacity while piloting the exoskeleton. Ultimately, the efforts described in this proposal will aid in the increase of the technology readiness level of the prototyping effort initiated under the first contract.