For the teleoperation of dual-arm robots with various tasks, the existence of a controller with a high degree of freedom is indispensable. Especially when precise work is required, additional information such as force feedback is very helpful for the operator. In transmitting such force information, a control device of exoskeleton-type with many points of contact with the human body can be one of the solutions. This paper proposes an optimal design method for the 7 degrees of freedom (DOF) exoskeleton systems. The proposed method optimizes the kinematic parameters by using kinematic performance indices related to the dexterity of the human and exoskeleton system. The manipulability ellipsoid is a representative index that can confirm the dexterity of the robot. In this study, we derived the objective function considering the human body model and then optimized it using a genetic algorithm. Unlike other HRI (Human-Robot Interaction) systems, exoskeleton robots share the end-effector as well as the base of the robot with the wearer. Therefore, it is hypothesized that the proposed performance index will be highly suitable for exoskeleton systems.

To solve the limitation of motion synchronization measurement method applied to medical rehabilitation in most laboratories, a new method to measure the change of metabolic costs with or without a military exoskeleton on an external field environment has been proposed. The relationship between oxygen consumption and heart rate in male subjects aged 20- 30 years is analyzed and an equation that estimates oxygen consumption by heart rate was derived using a multiple regression analysis. An evaluation model which verifies the effectiveness of military exoskeleton was established for specific military scenarios utilizing exoskeleton. As a result, the proposed method is simple and effective for quantitative evaluation of exoskeleton system and can be a substitute of the evaluation methods for the metabolic costs or movement synchronization between human and exoskeleton.