Development of a new shoulder mechanism for a muscle suit

Author

Kobayashi, Hiroshi ; Suzuki, Hidetoshi

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Tokyo Sci. Univ., Japan

fYear

2005

fDate

2-6 Aug. 2005

Firstpage

2128

Lastpage

2133

Abstract

A "muscle suit" that provides muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed as a wearable robot. The lack of a metal frame and use of McKibben artificial muscle allow the muscle suit to be lightweight, making it realistic to use in daily life. Although all motion for the upper limb by the armor-type muscle suit with the mechanical joints and hard frame is realized, shoulder joints has difficulty in smooth motion because of DOF limitation. To overcome the limitation, new link mechanism is proposed and smooth motion for shoulder is achieved.

Keywords

handicapped aids; medical robotics; motion control; muscle; McKibben artificial muscle; armor-type muscle suit; link mechanism; mechanical joints; muscular support; paralysis; shoulder mechanism; upper limb motion; wearable robot; Clothing; Exoskeletons; Humans; Mechanical engineering; Muscles; Pneumatic actuators; Prototypes; Robots; Shoulder; System testing; McKibben artificial muscle; Muscle suit; New shoulder mechanism; Upper limb motion; Wearable robot;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2005. (IROS 2005). 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8912-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IROS.2005.1545388

Filename

1545388