空間アクセス性評価に基づく肩義手の研究－小型空気圧アクチュエーターを用いたパラレルリンクアームの設計試作－

概要

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Owing to high DOF, many actuators, in turn, a large size, a heavy weight, and a complicated control mechanism, few shoulder prostheses have been developed. Therefore, adequate mechanical structure and optimization of the structure ' s configuration to fit for users ' spatial access and manipulability requirement are necessary. In our previous research, a pneumatic actuator driven parallel mechanism was proposed as shoulder prostheses for daily living use. In this study, new indexes for spatial accessibility were proposed for evaluating the shoulder prostheses. Using the spatial accessibility indexes, the configuration of the parallel link mechanism was optimized. Besides, the effect of biasing spacer and trunk motions on spatial accessibility were considered. The results showed that biasing spacers could improve the spatial accessibility by moving the center of the working space of the prosthesis towards the center of two specified spatial regions, which correspond to the expected frequently accessed area and the reachable area for an individual user ' s upper limb. And trunk motions could enlarge the working space thus further improve the spatial accessibility. Finally, based on the optimal configuration, the prototype was developed, and we empirically confirmed the behavior of the arm and the effect of the biasing spacers.
ライフサポート学会の論文