Unplugged Powered Suit for Superhuman Tennis

摘要

In this study, we developed an unplugged powered suit (UPS) for superhuman tennis. The developed UPS does not require an electric source and is actuated by newly developed pneumatic artificial muscles--called pneumatic gel muscle (PGM)--driven with low air pressure. The PGM supports human movement without air compressors or heavy tanks. The UPS for tennis consists of five components: pneumatic artificial muscles, air pumps, a light air tank, a mechanical valve, and pipework. Experiments conducted show that the developed suit increases the swing speed of the wearer.