Optimization of the upper arm cuff applied the compliant mechanism for holding the forearm artificial arm

Abstract

For holding the forearm artificial arm, the patient must pull and tighten a part of the belt. However, the pressure distribution becomes heterogeneous so that the patient could become the bedsore. In this paper, our motivation is to develop the upper arm cuff that can distribute the even pressure. We optimized the upper arm cuff design applied the compliant mechanism and compare with the conventional design to validate the feasibility study of the proposed design. We optimized the upper arm cuff based on the Dr. Kanno's design as the initial shape. In experiment, we measured the displacement of the structure. As a result, we identified the consistency between the experimental value and the optimized solution. Then, we measured the internal pressure using a variation index. We concluded that the compliant mechanism design could decrease the pressure dispersion more significantly than conventional design.