2023 年 16 巻 1 号 p. 37-42
Terracing allows cultivation even in hilly regions but does not permit the use of conventional heavy machinery. Olive trees, grown on terraced lands, are harvested with a handheld long-shafted harvester that shakes the branches of the trees and makes olives fall over nets arranged around the trees. This relatively heavy and unbalanced hand-hold tool causes fatigue and articular-muscular disease to the operators. This paper presents a lightweight exoskeleton developed to help in the carrying and operating of such tools, reducing human effort and the incidence of long-term pathologies to the operators. This work describes the kinematics and design of the proposed exoskeleton, which is passive and “minimal”. A prototype of the exoskeleton has been produced and tested in the field.
