Development of Power Assist Wear Using Pneumatic Rubber Artificial Muscles

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 607-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiro Noritsugu ◽  
◽  
Masahiro Takaiwa ◽  
Daisuke Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Artificial Muscle ◽  
Innovative Technology ◽  
Artificial Muscles ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Assist Device ◽  
Assist Devices ◽  
Heavy Work ◽  
User Friendly

In the future, when the average age of the members of society becomes advanced, an innovative technology to assist the activities of daily living of elderly and disabled people and to assist in the heavy work in nursing will be desired. To develop such a technology, an actuator that is safe and user-friendly is required. It should be small, lightweight, and sufficiently soft. Such an actuator is available in artificial muscle made of pneumatic rubber. We have developed some types of pneumatic rubber artificial muscles and applied them to wearable power assist devices. A wearable power assist device is fitted to the human body to assist the power of muscles that support the activities of daily living, rehabilitation, training, and so on. In this paper, some types of pneumatic rubber artificial muscles developed and manufactured in our laboratory are presented. Furthermore, two kinds of wearable power assist devices driven by the rubber artificial muscles are described. Finally, some evaluations clarify the effectiveness of pneumatic rubber artificial muscle for innovative human assistance technologies.

Wearable Power Assist Device for Standing Up Motion Using Pneumatic Rubber Artificial Muscles

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 619-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiro Noritsugu ◽  
◽  
Daisuke Sasaki ◽  
Masafumi Kameda ◽  
Atsushi Fukunaga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Population ◽  
Artificial Muscle ◽  
Artificial Muscles ◽  
User Friendliness ◽  
Assist Device ◽  
Birth Rates ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
And Control

As society ages and birth rates fall, the dropping number of caregivers for an increasingly elderly population is expected to become a serious problem, raising the need for devices to assist those having difficulty in leading independent lives. These devices must be used near or directly on their users, making safety and user-friendliness equally important. This raises the need for safe, user-friendly actuators that are compact, lightweight, and appropriately soft. The pneumatic rubber artificial muscle meets this requirement. We developed a wearable power assist device that aids people in standing and uses the McKibben pneumatic rubber artificial muscle. We discuss its structure, basic features, and control. We also present an example of its application to rehabilitation.

Communication Through Haptics During Human Collaborative Manipulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 1850003
Author(s):  
Maria Javaid
Keyword(s):  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
User Study ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Elderly Person ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Communication Interface ◽  
Assistive Robot ◽  
Haptic Communication ◽  
User Friendly

This paper describes research towards understanding haptic communication during planar object manipulation. In particular, a classification algorithm that classifies four stages of manipulation of a planar object is described. This research was performed as a part of a broader research project which has the goal of developing a user-friendly communication interface for an elderly-assistive robot. The manipulation of planar object was studied in detail as it happened very frequently during user study involving a caregiver helping an elderly person with the activities of daily living. For observing human haptic interaction, a sensory glove was developed. Further data collection was conducted in the laboratory setting and data was analyzed using various machine learning techniques. Based on this analysis, decision rules were derived that give insight into human-to-human collaborative manipulation of planar objects and successfully identified several classes of manipulative actions. The developed decision tree-based algorithm was then tested on the data of a user study that involved a caregiver assisting an elderly person in the activities of daily living. The developed algorithm also successfully classifies manipulation actions in real-time. This information is particularly interesting as it does not depend on any particular sensor and thus can be used by other researchers to further study haptic communication.

Design of a Novel Multifunctional Rehabilitation Aid Based on Ergonomics

2011 ◽  
Vol 308-310 ◽  
pp. 943-946
Author(s):  
Jian Guo Zhang ◽  
He Rong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Motion Simulation ◽  
Concept Design ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Rehabilitation Training ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
The Disabled

A novel aid with self-care and rehabilitation function has been designed based on ergonomics, according to the functional demand of ADL (Activities of Daily Living) and the requirements of rehabilitation training for disabled people or elderly. The overall design process and the main functions of the aid were introduced in this paper. Its concept design and motion simulation is finished by using Pro/E software. The aid can meet the ADL demand of the disabled people and elderly such as getting up, going to the toilet etc.

scholarly journals A DSL-Based Approach for Detecting Activities of Daily Living by Means of the AGGIR Variables

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5674
Author(s):  
José Manuel Negrete Ramírez ◽  
Philippe Roose ◽  
Marc Dalmau ◽  
Yudith Cardinale ◽  
Edgar Silva
Keyword(s):  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Home Environment ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Smart Home ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Domain Specific Language ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Event Information

In this paper, we propose a framework for studying the AGGIR (Autonomie Gérontologique et Groupe Iso Ressources—Autonomy Gerontology Iso-Resources Groups) grid model, with the aim of assessing the level of independence of elderly people in accordance with their capabilities of performing daily activities as well as interacting with their environments. In order to model the Activities of Daily Living (ADL), we extend a previously proposed Domain Specific Language (DSL), by defining new operators to deal with constraints related to time and location of activities and event recognition. The proposed framework aims at providing an analysis tool regarding the performance of elderly/disabled people within a home environment by means of data recovered from sensors using a smart-home simulator environment. We perform an evaluation of our framework in several scenarios, considering five of the AGGIR variables (i.e., feeding, dressing, toileting, elimination, and transfers) as well as health-care devices for tracking the occurrence of elderly activities. The results demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed framework for managing the tracked records correctly and, thus, generate the appropriate event information related to the ADL.

Wearable Power Assist Robot Driven with Pneumatic Rubber Artificial Muscles

2012 ◽  
pp. 139-147
Author(s):  
Toshiro Noritsugu
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Artificial Muscles ◽  
Light Weight ◽  
Muscular Power ◽  
Assist Device ◽  
Assist Devices ◽  
Current State

A wearable power assist robot to enhance muscular power using actuators is sought after for welfare applications, et cetera. Pneumatic rubber artificial muscles are seen as some of the more useful wearable actuators because of their inherent light weight and softness. In this chapter, the author first outlines the current state of the research and development of this kind of robot before introducing some pneumatic rubber artificial muscles developed in the author’s laboratory. The chapter then moves on to explain about the wearable power assist devices driven with these artificial muscles; both the exoskeleton type and the non-exoskeleton are wearable power assist devices. These power assist wear could be considered ideal as a wearable and comfortable power assist device.

scholarly journals Pneumatikus izomelemek alkalmazása gyógyterápiás eszközökhöz

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 278-282
Author(s):  
József Sárosi ◽  
János Gyeviki
Keyword(s):  
Physical Therapy ◽  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Low Noise ◽  
Artificial Muscles ◽  
Pneumatic Artificial Muscles ◽  
Low Stiffness ◽  
Successful Rehabilitation ◽  
Robotic Devices

Many important activities of daily living (e. g. dressing and eating) depend on two-handed function. For people affected by stroke, frequent physical therapy has been suggested to be a successful rehabilitation. The use of robotic devices to assist the therapies is becoming more commonly, but traditional robots are usually stiff. The devices have to be able to provide the treatment way of repetitive practice. More and more devices consist of pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) as a good solution for actuators. There is a need for affordable, economical, low cost, lightweight, practical, low stiffness, multi-dimensional and low noise operation devices to assist therapy. In this paper we present some possibilities of use of PAM in rehabilitation devices.

A useful development in measuring activities of daily living

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 1417-1417
Author(s):  
David Ames
Keyword(s):  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Amyloid Pet ◽  
Prodromal Ad ◽  
Prodromal Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
User Friendly

Standard activities of daily living (ADL) scales developed in the 1960s and 1970s do not capture the subtle impairments seen in individuals with progressive mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which in many cases is due to prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD). Given the promise of treatments now in development to modify the underlying AD process, early detection of MCI may become very important in future. De Vriendt and colleagues, whose paper has been chosen by the editorial team of International Psychogeriatrics, to be paper of the month in this issue, are to be congratulated for developing and validating the advanced ADL tool with the aim of providing a useful ADL measure to distinguish normal from pathological cognitive aging. They have assessed a large sample (150 people with AD, MCI and healthy controls) and report acceptable parameters for discrimination of these three groups using the instrument they have developed. The next step will be to try it out in a variety of clinical populations, settings, and cultures and perhaps to see how well it stacks up against other methods of detecting preclinical and prodromal AD (e.g. amyloid PET scans or lumbar punctures). The publication of this very good paper will allow other teams around the world to start using this user-friendly instrument and I await the outcome of further work on it with great interest.

scholarly journals Wearable Power Assist Robot Driven with Pneumatic Rubber Artificial Muscles

Robotics ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 1188-1195
Author(s):  
Toshiro Noritsugu
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Artificial Muscles ◽  
Light Weight ◽  
Muscular Power ◽  
Assist Device ◽  
Assist Devices ◽  
Current State

A wearable power assist robot to enhance muscular power using actuators is sought after for welfare applications, et cetera. Pneumatic rubber artificial muscles are seen as some of the more useful wearable actuators because of their inherent light weight and softness. In this chapter, the author first outlines the current state of the research and development of this kind of robot before introducing some pneumatic rubber artificial muscles developed in the author’s laboratory. The chapter then moves on to explain about the wearable power assist devices driven with these artificial muscles; both the exoskeleton type and the non-exoskeleton are wearable power assist devices. These power assist wear could be considered ideal as a wearable and comfortable power assist device.

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