Development of the balance exercise suit using pneumatic artificial muscles

Abstract

Decrease in balance control ability leads to the risk of falling among the elderly, and reactive postural control is important to prevent falling. In this paper, we developed a wearable suit for improving balance function with pneumatic gel muscles (PGMs). This suit can make perturbations to the upper body and aims to improve the function of reactive postural control through balance exercise. Small perturbations are generated by contraction force of PGMs attached the suit. Furthermore, the suit was designed to be lighter using DhaibaDAQ as the accelerometer and switch module. We described the system configuration, the torque of PGMs, and the control method.