Design and Evaluation of a Balance Assistance Control Moment Gyroscope

We recently proposed the theoretical idea of a wearable balancing aid, consisting of a set of control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) contained into a backpacklike orthopedic corset. Even though similar solutions have been reported in the literature, important considerations in the synthesis and design of the actuators remained to be addressed. These include design requirements such as aerodynamic behavior of the spinning flywheel, induced dynamics by the wearer's motion, and stresses in the inner components due to the generated gyroscopic moment. In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of a single CMG, addressing in detail the aforementioned requirements. In addition, given the application of the device in human balance, the design follows the European directives for medical electrical equipment. The developed system was tested in a dedicated balance test bench showing good agreement with the expected flywheel speed, and calculated power requirements in the actuators and output gyroscopic moment. The device was capable of producing a peak gyroscopic moment of approximately 70 N·m with a total CMG mass of about 10 kg.