Construction of an Intelligent Massage System Based on Human Skin-Muscle Elasticity

摘要

Current massage chairs realize massage motion and force designed by a professional masseur. However, a massage force appropriate to the user cannot be provided by massage chairs using this method. On the other hand, a professional masseur can provide appropriate massage force to more than one patient, because the masseur considers the physical condition of the patient. This paper proposes a method of applying this masseur procedure to massage chairs. The proposed method is based on estimation of the physical condition of the user, choice of the massage force based on the physical condition, and realization of the massage force by force control. The realizability of the proposed method was verified by an experimental study using the massage chair.