Prototype of Wearable Assistive Suit to Assist Multiple Shoulder Movement

Abstract

Assist suits are gaining popularity. Most currently used assistive suits have an exoskeleton and only assist in one direction. Designing a complex joint structure is necessary for assistive suits with an exoskeleton to support multi-DOF joints like the shoulder. To solve this problem, research on assistive suits with soft actuators has been active. One is a wearable assistive suit, with rigid surface plates placed along the body (except at joints) and artificial muscles. The study suggests that the plate effectively transfers the contraction force of the artificial muscles to the body. This research presents a prototype wearable assistive suit for a shoulder that assists in abduction and horizontal adduction. Before evaluating the potential for complex motion assist, the attained joint angles in each direction were measured to investigate the assist performance of the wearable assist suit for the shoulder.