• exoskeleton
• manual material handling
• power assist
• hybrid actuation

In the last decades, exoskeletons have evolved from full-body devices with high flexibility and complexity to simpler ones that help workers in specific activities, such as sustaining uncomfortable postures or load carrying.
In this work, the control of a novel, full-body exoskeleton for the assistance of workers in handling chemical toilets has been designed and tested in simulation. The exoskeleton design accounts for the harsh working conditions and targets the affordability of the device. Therefore, it features a hybrid actuation and it has only four motors at the elbows and the knees. The control exploits these motors to assist the worker in the pushing phase. The control is based on the measurement of the force exerted by the worker on the exoskeleton and orchestrates the assistance to the elbows and the knees taking into account the gait phase and the contact of the feet with the ground. The simulation shows a reduction of the forces on the human workers in the case of the unaltered direction of the total force on the toilet, and in the case of exploitation of the exoskeleton assist capabilities. The thesis includes the characterization of the sensors used for the control as well as the design of the actuators, their implementation, and characterization.