Development of Welfare Care Elements using Sponge-Core-Soft Rubber Actuator

为了开发对人友好的老年人支持机，改进人与机械系统之间的界面变得非常重要。特别是在残疾人或老年人的运动辅助机器中，强烈需要柔软的机械界面。因此，具有主动元件和被动元件的作动器在软机械界面设计中备受关注。为了实现这些元件，我们提出了一种新型的海绵橡胶覆盖硅橡胶的气动软执行器（海绵芯软橡胶执行器）。此外，在本研究中，我们将软橡胶驱动器应用于一种新型床元件，以防止身体堵塞。也就是说，为了明确执行器的有效性，我们考察了混合元件的性能，开发了拥塞保护垫，并通过一些实验结果明确了力控制性能和力估计性能。实验结果说明了混合单元的有效性。接下来，我们将驱动器应用于身体保护矫形器。在实验中，我们研究了执行器在机械冲击下的冲击吸收能力与海绵腔压力水平的关系。通过一些实验结果，验证了矫形器的有效性。

In order to develop a human friendly support machine for elderly people, improvement of the interface between human and mechanical system has been becoming very important. Especially, soft mechanical interfaces are strongly required in motion assist machines for handicapped people or elderly people. Therefore, an actuator that has both active elements and passive elements attracts attention to design the soft mechanical interface.To realize these elements, we propose a new type of pneumatic soft actuator that a sponge rubber is covered with silicon rubber (Sponge-Core-Soft rubber Actuator). Further, in this study we apply the soft rubber actuator to a new type of bed element to prevent congestion of the body. That is to say, in order to clear the effectiveness of the actuator, we examine the performance of the hybrid element to develop a congestion protection mat. Moreover, both the force control performance and the force estimation performance are cleared through some experimental results. As the results, the usefulness of the hybrid element is illustrated using experimental results.Next, we apply the actuator to a body protection orthosis. In the experiment, we investigate the impact absorptivity of the actuator under mechanical shock with respect to the pressure level in sponge chamber. Through some experimental results, the effectiveness of the orthosis is cleared.