抄録
In recent years, various power assistive devices with electric, pneumatic and hydraulic drive have been developed. The advantages of pneumatically-driven system such as light-weight, high power-weight ratio and direct drive are suitable for the devices. However, the method to provide air power source is a critical issue in pneumatically-driven devices. To solve the problem, we propose and develop a pneumatic walking assistive system with a soft exoskeleton and a follower robot carrying an air compressor. The exoskeleton is actuated by pneumatic artificial rubber muscles (PARMs) and walking intention is detected from the pressure change in the PARMs. The follower robot follows the wearer with a tether interface. The effectiveness of the system is confirmed with some experiments.
