二ワイヤ三モードバネ機構を用いた装着型パワーアシスト装置の開発

抄録

In recent years, the news of the wearable assist device suitable for work in the farming and factories has become a hot topic. In this study, we propose a new spring mechanism named as Two-wire-three-mode spring mechanism that has three phases of stiffness properties. We developped a experimental equipment using Two-Wire-Three-Mode SAT for rotating joints for verification its basic mechanism. Based on experimental results we confirmed that the mechanism has automatically changed the joint stiffness from compliant to stiff progressively by three stages according to the rotation angle of the joint. We also applied the spring device for a wearable posture assist device which has no power devices. We developped a prototype model that consist of link along the body surface from the back to the ankle, the spring device, ancker unit and wires.