アシストスーツのための外付け用メカニカル安全装置の提案

抄録

It is important for rehabilitation assist suits to ensure the safety for patients even when their computer fails and becomes uncontrollable. We have developed a compact and light velocity-based mechanical safety device (Compact VBMSD) for an elbow joint assist suit. The Compact VBMSD stops the assist suit’s motor when it detects an unexpected elbow joint angular velocity. The Compact VBMSD works even when the assist suit’s computer breaks down, because it consists of only passive mechanical elements such as springs. However, it is difficult to attach the Compact VBMSD to various assist suits because the Compact VBMSD was designed to incorporate into the elbow joint assist suit. In this study, we propose an external velocity-based mechanical safety device to be attached to various assist suits. First, we describe the overview and the structure of the external velocity-based mechanical safety device. Second, we explain the mechanism of the external velocity-based mechanical safety device. Finally, we present the external velocity-based mechanical safety device which we designed.