Development of an exoskeleton with variable viscoelasticity composed of antagonized artificial muscle and magneto-rheological fluid brake

-Motion judgment algorithm based on joint angle and joint angular velocity-

Abstract

Recently, in Japan, a burden for labor is increasing due to the aging society. To solve these problem, assistive suits are proposed for one of the solutions. In the previous study, an assistive suit, Airsist I has been developed that is based on the variable viscoelasticity. However, the motion judgment interface for Airsist I has not been studied. In this study, joint angle and joint angular velocity are used to judge the motion of the wearer, because Airsist I has a high backdrivability. This paper reports the motion judgment algorithm that is based on the wearer’s joint angle, and joint angular velocity, and experiments are conducted to evaluate the utility of the algorithm.