Title :
Walking assistance by functional clothes with highly elastic fabric
Author :
Shizukai, A. ; Seki, Takaya ; Kato, Ryota ; Morishita, S. ; Nakamura, T. ; Yokoi, Hiroshi
Author_Institution :
Grad. Sch. of Inf. & Eng., Univ. of Electro-Commun., Chofu, Japan
Abstract :
We proposed a novel approach to walking assistance by using functional clothes with highly elastic fabric. This strategy can achieve walking assistance without external forces generated by an actuator. In order to examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we produced a functional girdle and assessed the extent to which it assisted the hip flexor muscles. We confirmed that the load on the hip flexor muscles decreased during hip flexion while subjects wore the functional clothes.
Keywords :
actuators; biomedical equipment; cellular biophysics; elasticity; fabrics; gait analysis; muscle; actuator; functional clothes; functional girdle; highly elastic fabric; hip flexor muscles; walking assistance; Actuators; Electromyography; Fabrics; Hip; Joints; Legged locomotion; Muscles;
Conference_Titel :
Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), 2011 IEEE/ASME International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Budapest
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-0838-1
DOI :
10.1109/AIM.2011.6027111
