PVC Gel Spats for Walking Assistance using Variable Stiffness

摘要

As a candidate of artificial muscle, a poly vinyl chloride (PVC) gel actuator has many positive characteristics as movement in the air, notable deformation and being lightweight. So a wide application is expected. In a previous study we have proposed a structure of a contraction type actuator and investigated various characteristics and found that its stiffness changed noticeably with a variation in the applied DC field. In this study, we designed new PVC gel spats for walking assistance using variable stiffness of the PVC gel actuator. The PVC gel actuators are ranging along the generally used spats, and the stiffness of the spats can be varied with the on and off switching of an electric field. The spats can assist walking by restraining and releasing body motion with different stiffness while walking. We conducted experiments to evaluate their effectiveness and found that the integrated electromyogram (IEMG) and maximal voluntary contraction (%MVC) of the rectus femoris muscle decreased during walking when wearing them which indicated that the gel spats designed in this study were effective in assisting walking.