空圧式摩擦クラッチ機構を用いた足首用ウェアラブル装置の開発

抄録

The purpose of this study is to develop the ankle wearable device that constructed with artificial muscles and the pneumatic friction clutch to train leg motion directly. The developed clutch is constructed with the air bellows, the friction member and the wire. Pull-out of the wire is constrained by the friction force of the friction member increased owing to compressed foce from the bellows . As the artificial muscle can be kept at initial length, this friction clutch reduces displacement dependence of an artificial muscle. In this paper, the structure of tthe pneumatic friction clutch is described and then the influence of the device on gait are confirmed experimentally.