Development of Wearable Power Assist Robot for Shoulder Using Disk Brake Mechanism Driven with Pneumatic Soft Actuator

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a wearable power assist robot to decrease a shoulder burden in shipbuilding work. The developed device is constructed with exoskeleton, disk brake mechanism and pneumatic artificial rubber muscles, which drive disk brake mechanism. This exoskeleton is constructed with multi-link mechanism and rotational joint for shoulder flexion / extension. The constitution of exoskeleton is different from a human joint. Disk brake mechanism is installed on rotational joint of exoskeleton. Pneumatic artificial rubber muscles apply driving force for this brake mechanism. By driving brake mechanism, this device can apply shoulder flexion torque to human. In this paper, the structure and principle of this device are discussed, and then frictional torque model of proposed brake mechanism is described, and is verified experimentally. Finally, effectiveness of this device is verified experimentally.