DEVELOPMENT OF A SKIN DISPLACEMENT SENSOR FOR THE PNEUMATIC POWER ASSISTED SYSTEM

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  • DOHTA Shujiro
    Department of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Okayama University of Science
  • AKAGI Tetsuya
    Department of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Okayama University of Science
  • KUNO Hiroaki
    Department of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Okayama University of Science

Abstract

An importance of wearable device in the field of medical treatment has been strongly recognized. Also, the development of the power assisted system has been done to support the nursing care work for the elderly. The purpose of our study is to develop a wearable flexible displacement sensor which can measure the movement of human body by mounting on the skin surface. The tested sensor consists of two fixed electrodes, a slide electrode and a nylon string coated with carbon (NSCC). It works as a flexible potentiometer by sliding the slide electrode along NSCC while keeping the electrical contact. In order to keep a stable electrical contact even if NSCC bends flexibly, the slider is consisted of a brass cylinder filled with carbon black powder. In our previous study, we confirmed that the sensor worked well by carrying out the position control of a McKibben artificial muscle.<BR>In this paper, we proposed and tested a skin displacement sensor using the flexible displacement sensor that can measure the bending angle of the human arm without measuring the joint angle directly. As a result, we confirmed that we can know the human motion indirectly using the tested sensor. We apply the proposed sensor to the control of the power assisted system by using a pneumatic rubber artificial muscle.

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