Development of a New Type of Lightweight Power Assist Suit for Transfer Work

This paper presents a new power assist suit to reduce the burden of a caregiver´s waist for a transfer work in nursing care. The proposed assist suit is a lightweight and inexpensive. In addition, it can be worn and removed easily, since overalls with high pliability is used. The power assist suits with one artificial muscle and two artificial muscles were built, and the assistance effect was evaluated through an integrated electromyogram. Moreover, using a tilt sensor and a pressure sensor, an automatic identification of caregiver´s action in the transfer work was carried out to detect a timing which performs air supply and release to the artificial muscle. Also, a pressure control strategy for the artificial muscle was proposed. From the experimental results, using the developed power assist suit, a suitable assist force was supplied to the caregiver automatically.