Robotic rehabilitation tool supporting up and down motions in the bathroom - analyses of the catapult-assisted taking-off mechanism

摘要

Flexibility and quickness of biological muscles are of interest to people developing welfare robots and studying physiotherapy procedures. We focus on the transition process from sitting to standing in human motions, which needs to generate an instantaneous force at the moment of standing, and propose a robotic device to help the up-and-down motion in the bathroom by assisting the force when the backside is taking off from the lavatory basin. Our lightweight construction device allows disabled persons to move easily from the living space to the bathroom and assist its motion from the viewpoint of rehabilitation. In the prototype experiment, the artificial muscle--based on elastic-plastic materials by using rebound characteristics in an S-shaped structure--demonstrated that a cyclic motion triggers a generation of instantaneous force large enough to launch a ball. This suggests that the combination of the movable frame with the human body and the artificial muscle mechanism provide a user-friendly tool for self-supporting life of disabled persons.