Analysis of the physical interaction between Human and Robot via OpenSim software

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the Physical Human-Robot Interaction (PHRI) which is an important extension of traditional HRI work. This work of analysis helps in understanding the effects on the upper limb of the human musculoskeletal system when human user interacts with the robotic device. This is concerned for various applicational interests, like in the field of health care, industrial applications, military, sport science and many more. We developed a CAD model of an exoskeleton in SolidWorks to satisfy all the properties required. The designed upper limb exoskeleton has been implemented within the simulating software OpenSim via the platform Notepad++ using xml language. This framework has been used to simulate and analyse the effects at muscular level when the exoskeleton is coupled with the model of the upper limb of the human body for a desired elbow flexion and extension movements. Then the results i.e. force generated by muscles with and without exoskeleton contribution are plotted and compared. The results of the simulations show that, wearing the exoskeleton, the forces exerted by the muscles decrease significantly. This thesis is only the starting point of a wide range of possible future works. Aiming at the use of exact controller, optimization technique, cost estimation possibilities applying to real word model and reaching the people in need.