Development of Mobile Hydraulic Power Unit (mHPU) for Power-Limb Power Assist Device

Abstract

In this paper, the small-size mobile hydraulic system is proposed for a lower-limb power assist device. The proposed mobile hydraulic power unit (mHPU) is composed of the miniature axial hydraulic piston pump and an electric motor which are connected via a belt-pulley mechanism. This allows overcoming the undesirable characteristics of conventional hydraulic power units (HPUs) in terms of size and weight. The proposed mHPU is 3.5kg and generates a maximum pressure of 204bar.