The aiding robot 'Melkong' and a mobility-aiding unit were developed in the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MITI), Japan, and by affiliated enterprises in Japan, respectively. Melkong was used for lifting a patient from a hospital bed and transporting him or her in a semi-automatic way. A computer control system making the robot manoeuvre more efficiently has also been developed. Its manipulator consists of two arms which are hydraulically driven in a pantograph link mechanism. In total, there are seven degrees of freedom, three for each arm and one for their base, which can rotate along a vertical axis. Each arm is equipped with a pair of forks at its tip. In order to lift a patient, the forks are inserted into the holes of specially designed beds, transporting the patient together with parts of the bed. A control method using sensors and a safety countermeasure are explained briefly. To put the mobility-aiding unit to practical use, two kinds of prototype-a high-performance type and a simplified type-were manufactured in cooperation with affiliated enterprises. The mobility-aiding units adopted a slide-sheet method instead of the manipulator in order to reduce weight and power consumption. Measures required for mass introduction of the robot systems are also mentioned.
展开▼
