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Analysis of institutional authors

Rodriguez-Cianca, DavidAuthorTorricelli D.Author

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December 17, 2025
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Proceedings Paper
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Engineering Synthetic Soft Tissue for Accurate Human-Exoskeleton Interaction Testing

Publicated to: Ieee ... International Conference On Rehabilitation Robotics : [Proceedings]. 1755-1760 - 2025-01-01 (), DOI: 10.1109/ICORR66766.2025.11063057

Authors:

Cenciarini, Massimo; Mariuzzo, Giorgia; Massardi, Stefano; Rodriguez-Cianca, David; Torricelli, Diego
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Affiliations

CSIC UPM, Ctr Automat & Robot CAR, BioRobot Grp, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Brescia, DIMI, Brescia, Italy - Author
Univ Padua, Padua, Italy - Author
Univ Politecn Cataluna, IRIS UPC, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Cataluna, ME Dept, Barcelona, Spain - Author
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Abstract

In the field of wearable robotics, assessing physical human-exoskeletons interaction (pHEI) is of critical importance in the development of wearable assistive devices. However, in the early stages of development of such devices, involving human testing could raise safety and ethical concerns. To address those limitations, we developed an active dummy leg named Leg Replica. Yet, the realism for pHEI was not adequate when mimicking soft-tissue behavior (compression and shear). The work presented here focused on identifying synthetic soft tissue simulants to enhance the fidelity of the Leg Replica, resulting in responses under compressive and shear stresses similar to those observed in human subjects. A novel approach is proposed in this work as a testing method for mechanical characterization of compressive and shear stresses of human soft tissues that is coherent with the specific application of wearable lower limb exoskeletons. The testing methodology was applied to 10 human subjects as well as the Leg Replica enhanced with three different platinum-catalyzed silicone material of varying hardness and thickness. One of the tested materials, with a thickness of 3 cm, demonstrated a mechanical behavior under compression and shear stresses comparable to that observed in human tissue. This study demonstrates the ability of the proposed methodology to objectively benchmark the adequacy of the Leg Replica combined with a new tissue simulant to mimic the biomechanical behavior of the human leg.
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Keywords

Assistive technologiesBiomimeticsEvaluation methodsExoskeleton benchmarkingPhysical human-exoskeleton interactionSoft tissue biomechanicsSynthetic tissue simulantsWearable robotics

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal IEEE ... International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics : [proceedings], Q3 Agency Scopus (SJR), its regional focus and specialization in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, give it significant recognition in a specific niche of scientific knowledge at an international level.

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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Italy.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: Last Author (TORRICELLI, DIEGO).

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Awards linked to the item

This work was supported by the research initiation grants to Lecturers "ALECTORS-2023" as described in the agreement CG/2023/08/07, of October 25, 2023, of the UPC Governing Council and also by the project EXOSAFE, awarded by the COVR European Project under grant agreement No. 779966.
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