We can consider Exoskeletons as medical devices that need to withstand a patient’s weight as well as provide support to his/her movements while fulfilling the most demanding safety specifications.
Bionic exoskeletons’ development in the past decade has been immeasurable, allowing certain injuries or physical handicaps to be overcome and regain long-lost mobility. To be able to withstand a patient’s weight and replicate a person’s movement inherently means high specification requirements. The challenge is to fit motion control components into the small exoskeletons. Ingenia’s servo drives fit virtually anywhere, as they are super compact while providing enough power for the final application.
Exoskeleton Challenges
Designing wearable machines that conform to the human body is challenging. Exoskeleton devices need to be small, light, compact, and reliable, delivering a trusted, comfortable, wearable solution.
Types of exoskeletons:
Biomedical exoskeletons
Industrial exoskeletons
Military exoskeletons
Biomedical exoskeletons are designed for rehabilitation or motion assistance purposes. These help people who experience constant, or temporary, partial immobility. Industrial exoskeletons are made to assist workers that perform physical activities of prolonged duration or highly redundant tasks, such as working on a manufacturing assembly line.
Applications for Mobility & Exoskeletons
- Full-body exoskeletons
- Mobility robotics
- Rehabilitation robotics
- Hip exoskeleton
- Limb exoskeleton
Compact Integration and Form Factor
Reducing the size of any electronic motion application is only possible if the component’s designs are compact. Servo drives are key to be optimized for reducing space and adapting to the specific form-factor of the final application. With the buried-via multi-layer technology it is common to find 16 or even 32 stacked layer designs embedded in a nail-size servo drive. This high level of compactness and integration allows the multi-axis robots to be modular, more efficient, and minimize wiring.
Minimum Standby Power Consumption & Highest efficiency
Minimum standby power consumption ensures that the servo drives use as little energy as possible when idling. Most importantly, however, low standby power consumption ensures that the overall temperature of the system stays low, especially in applications where people or delicate objects are involved, as it won’t lead to any damage. Ingenia’s drives have an optimized standby power consumption down to 1.2 W per axis while keeping the efficiency up to 99%.
Lightweight
In applications where weight is crucial, a lightweight servo drive is one of the first, most important requirements. We make sure to minimize the components assembled in our products to decrease their weight to the absolute minimum while still satisfying our customer’s needs and application requirements while maintaining the best performance in the market.
Ultra-Low Latency
Ingenia’s drives allow for system latencies of down to 1 EtherCAT cycle. Such a feature is mandatory for highly responsive systems where motion commands must be executed instantly, minimizing lag, and maximizing safety and efficiency.
STO SIL3 PLE – Functional Safety
All our products feature certified STO SIL3 PLE Functional Safety, providing any application with a function to set motors in a state where no torque is produced. This allows for safe applications for the electronics and, most importantly, for any person who may be around the final motion control application.
Medical Standards
Experience designing servo drives according to electrical medical equipment standards such as:
• IEC 60601 standard provides general requirements for basic safety and essential performance.
• ISO 15858 standard describes the minimum specifications on UVC safety for products, and equipment utilizing UVC lamp fixtures.
• ISO 14971.