Maritime applications for a mobile robot

A water and corrosion resistant exoskeleton system configured to operate in a ship on a body of water, the exoskeleton system comprising:

• a water and corrosion resistant left and right leg actuator unit configured to be respectively coupled to a left and right leg of a user, the left and right leg actuator units each including:
• an upper arm and a lower arm that are rotatably coupled via a joint, the joint positioned at a knee of the user with the upper arm coupled about an upper leg portion of the user above the knee and with the lower arm coupled about a lower leg portion of the user below the knee,
• a fluidic bellows actuator that extends between the upper arm and lower arm, and
• a water and corrosion resistant exoskeleton device configured to operate in a ship on a body of water that includes:
• a fluidic system, and
• a processor and memory, the memory storing instructions, that when executed by the processor, are configured to control the fluidic system to:
• introduce fluid to the fluidic bellows actuators of the left and right leg actuator units to cause actuation of the fluidic bellows actuators of the left and right leg actuator units,
• operate in a first configuration when a determination is made by the exoskeleton device that the exoskeleton system is experiencing an impact, the determination based at least in part on accelerometer and joint encoder data and a determination that a joint angle of the left actuator unit is above a threshold value, where a largest joint angle value corresponds to a maximum extension of the joint;
• and
• operate in a second configuration that is different from the first configuration when the joint angle of the left leg actuator unit is below the threshold value, the second configuration causing generation of constant force by the fluidic bellows actuators of the left and right leg actuator units to provide knee torque support to the user as the knee reaches a higher degree of flexion.