Development of Muscle Suit without External Air Supply

Abstract

We have been developing the wearable robot “muscle suit” for direct and physical motion supports. The use of the McKibben artificial muscle has opened the way to the introduction of the muscle suit - compact, lightweight, reliable, wearable “assist-robots” enabling manual worker to lift and carry weights. However, the necessity of compressed air for the McKibben artificial muscle set a limit on the application field. So we developed the muscle suit which does not need any external air supply.