Development of a wearable power-assisted orthosis for nursing care

As Japan´s population ages rapidly, it is expected that the number of people who require nursing care will increase steadily. This will lead to a much greater physical burden being imposed on carers. Thus, the purpose of this work is to develop of a wearable power-assisted orthosis for nursing care that reduces the physical burden on carers. The system is worn on the carer´s sword arm and supports sward arm´s motor ability by using an actuator. The actuator is a DC geared motor weighing 2.0 kg with a maximum output of 33.4 Nm. To control the orthosis, the system employs electromyogram (EMG) signals associated with the motion of the shoulder joint and the elbow joint angle signal to give a hands-free control system that can automatically control the DC geared motor. Experimental results clearly demonstrate the power-assisted orthosis´s ability for holding support, reducing the physical burden by about 50 %.