温冷環境と力覚を双方向伝送するテレ・ハプティクス・ロボットアーム・システムの開発

―体幹から指先までを対象とする力覚ウェアラブルアーム装置の構造の紹介―

抄録

Robot systems capable of experiencing remote environments are urgently required for future lack of manpower and aging society. In this study, the development of the tele-existence robot arm system in which human beings can experience not only the haptic environment but also the thermal (hot/cold) environment was focused on. In this system, operator's shoulder and arm should be restricted by an exoskelton wearable device to get motion and posture information of a remote robot arm. For development of a proper wearable device, it is important to design the configuration of joints of the wearable device so as to allow every motions and postures of an operator without any interruption. Especially, a shoulder joint of human is so functional that the reproduction by a simple mechanical structure has been almost difficult. In this report, prototype design of a wearable arm device, originated from collar bone joint, with a novel (111) isometric shoulder configuration, was introduced.