Abstract
Ageing population around the world is increasing the demand of caregiver. The caregiver job itself is already physically challenging and has high rate of work injury. This increase in demand will further increase more work load on this profession. Therefore robotic assistance for caregiver is needed to reduce their work burden especially in physically challenged task. In this paper, a new stand-up supporting system using Big-hand is proposed. The robot system is able to assist patient in standing up motion. The whole system is designed using pneumatic system making it light weight and usable in normal household. Besides, pneumatic power does not cause any interference with any electronics device that the patient is using. Pneumatic actuator weight to power ratio is higher compare to conventional electrical motor as well. The actuator used in this stand-up supporting system is made from different arrangement of flat tube which will produce different motion when pressure is being applied. The working principle for each of the actuator is being explain in this paper as well. A smaller version of the stand-up supporting system has been fabricated and it is tested on a mannequin which proves to be able to support the stand-up motion. Finally, the future development for this stand-up supporting system is mentioned as well.
