Evaluation of a body weight supporting system driven by pneumatic artificial muscles based on pedestrian’s floor reaction force

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a body weight support system using rubberless artificial muscle. This system reduces load on the lower limb by lifting a pedestrian using rubberless artificial muscle. In order to confirm effectiveness of this system, we carried out some walking experiments by using an experimental system which is constructed by us. We confirmed that the effectiveness of this system from the point of view of floor reaction force and up and down movement of pedestrian’s waist.