Abstract
Wheeled vehicles are often incapable of transporting heavy materials over rough terrain or up staircases. Lower extremity exoskeletons supplement human intelligence with the strength and endurance of a pair of wearable robotic legs that support a payload. This paper summarizes the design and analysis of the Berkeley lower extremity exoskeleton (BLEEX). The anthropomorphically based BLEEX has 7 DOF per leg, four of which are powered by linear hydraulic actuators. The selection of the DOF, critical hardware design aspects, and initial performance measurements of BLEEX are discussed.