Markerless Measurement System of Body Surface Deformation for Structure Determination of Wearable Robot

摘要

The authors aim to realize a wearable robot that supports the motion of entire torso. The first task to realize the robot is to determine its structure suitable for motion support. Focusing on the body surface where the robot makes direct contact, we examine the robot structure that can follow the deformation of the body surface. In order to clarify the robot structure, it is necessary to measure the deformation of the body surface. However, with the existing measurement method of body surface deformation using markers, the robot structure can not be clarified. Hence, we have studied a new system to measure the deformation of the body surface without using any markers. In this system, the body surface shape is obtained as time-series point cloud data. After that, the body surface (point cloud data) is divided into multiple local areas, and the time-series correspondence of each local area is clarified. Finally, the deformation is measured by tracking each local area. In this paper, the details of the system are described, and the measurement accuracy of the system is discussed. Furthermore, we quantitatively clarify how the body surface of the torso deforms at the time of forward bending by using the system.