Title : 
Development of an Urination Assist System - A Bladder Compressing System with a Link-Work Mechanism
         
        
            Author : 
Kiguchi, Kazuo ; Sakamoto, Yoshihiko ; Nakashima, Keiji ; Uozumi, Jiro
         
        
            Author_Institution : 
Saga Univ., Saga
         
        
        
        
        
        
            Abstract : 
In this paper, we propose a compact urination assist system that is implantable in a patient who has difficulty in urination caused by the decline of bladder muscular power, disconnection of the nerve to a bladder, etc. in order to assist the urination. The proposed system assists the urination by directly pushing the bladder of the patient using a link-work mechanism. SMA springs and Peltier elements are used to activate the proposed system. The effectiveness of the proposed system is evaluated by experiment.
         
        
            Keywords : 
biological organs; intelligent actuators; medical control systems; springs (mechanical); Peltier elements; actuator; bladder compressing system; bladder muscular power; link-work mechanism; shape memory alloy springs; urination assist system; Actuators; Bladder; Catheterization; Control engineering; Control systems; Mechatronics; Medical control systems; Neuromuscular stimulation; Springs; Temperature control;
         
        
        
        
            Conference_Titel : 
Mechatronics, ICM2007 4th IEEE International Conference on
         
        
            Conference_Location : 
Kumamoto
         
        
            Print_ISBN : 
1-4244-1183-1
         
        
            Electronic_ISBN : 
1-4244-1184-X
         
        
        
            DOI : 
10.1109/ICMECH.2007.4280068