An evaluation system of high risk factors for daily motions using force sensors

In Japan, old age syndrome with growing aged society has been one of the problems which should be solved as soon as possible. Sarcopenia is also one of the old age syndrome. The Sarcopenia is defined as a state decreasing a muscle quantity. However, the diagnostic standard is unclear. As one of the reason, the muscle quantity required by the living environment of patients differs from person to person. Clarification of the strength required in daily motion makes it easy to determine a diagnostic standard. It enables us to prevent accidents or injury from occurring it and avoid the high risk expected behavior. Therefore, this study aims to develop a device that can quantitatively measure a force required in daily life as a criterion, and evaluate the high risk behavior. This study focuses on the pinch and grip, which are two of the daily motions, and measures the force required in the motions. Experiment was performed with multiple trials of daily motion. Then, the motion which indicated the highest force, was additionally examined. For the pinching motion, the developed finger sensors were attached to the distal phalanx of the first and second fingers. The developed system could measure the force applied to the finger in the pinching motion. Then, the maximum force of the opening motion of a container differed by the opening process. It reminds as a future work to apply the developed system to more subjects and examine the force differences of daily motion between subjects.