Chain mail jamming exosuit for spine rehabilitation: acomprehensive analysis and optimization

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 12-31-2025

Abstract

This study outlines the design, testing, and optimization of a soft actuator featuring variable stiffness based on the principle of chain mail jamming. The variable stiffness actuator was designed for a wearable exosuit for spinal rehabilitation. It enables the exosuit to apply and adjust varying forces in response to muscle activity, allowing for adaptive support during therapy. The jamming effect occurs when negative pressure is applied on the edges of a soft cover, causing particles inside to entangle. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was conducted to evaluate the performance of the variable stiffness element in terms of the elastic bending modulus E at different particle parameters, such as length and diameter. Then, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to analyze the change of parameters and optimize them to get the optimal performance samples, which showed an improvement in stiffness and reduction in …

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