踏み出し動作を支援する空気圧システムを搭載した障がい児用歩行器の開発

抄録

Some children have a walking disability. Autonomous movement is essential to daily life, so the walking function recovery is desired. However some children with walking disabilities can't rehabilitation of walking for some reasons. For example, it can be difficult keeping the standing posture, or the muscle in the joints gets stiff. In this research, by the construction of a new soft actuator proposal and system for low energy source, we developed the anywhere available walker for children with disabilities equipped with a pneumatic system supporting the step forward behavior. In this paper, the principle and structure of one-way valve made of plastic film mounted in the soft actuator, its control system, and basic field experiment using manufactured walker are described.