Development of Pneumatic Power Assist Splint 'ASSIST' Operated by Human Intention

摘要

The purpose of this study is to develop a pneumatic power assist splint for a human arm. In the wearable device, a high human friendliness such as a light weight, a safety is required. The developed splint is constructed with soft actuators to confer a human friendliness. In this paper, the structure of ASSIST for a human arm is described. In addition, the control method based on a human intention is proposed. In the proposed method, a center of pressure calculated from contact force between the forearm and appliance is used as an intention input signal. Finally, the effectiveness of ASSIST is evaluated using EMG.