非線形転がり杖による自然な立ち上がり補助装置

―手すりを利用した立ち上がり経路を再現する設計―

抄録

We have been studying a sit-to-stand assistance device that does not use external power and is safely usable at home. The device is like a cane with a rod to push one's waist. The bottom of the cane forms a non-linear rolling shape designed to push the person's waist to rise in a desirable form. Also, the cane is designed to roll forward by pulling a lever attached to the cane via linkage. By this mechanism, a user can naturally move his/her body forward by the pulling action while his/her waist is assisted by a rod attached to the cane. In our previous reports, the waist assist route was taken from healthy persons' stand-up motions without using handrails. However, the route may differ when the persons use handrails while standing up, which may cause the rolling cane's bottom to be re-designed. This report shows the waist route measurement while standing up with various heights of handrails. We found that the handrail 80cm high at the beginning and 70cm high at the end showed better stability and waist route, which contributed to reducing the size of the device.