DEVELOPMENT OF POWER ASSIST SUIT FOR ASSISTING NURSE CARRING PATIENT

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Powered suit developed in this project is to support muscular force of a attendant nurse in the sequential operation of holding up and down of a patient. The powered suit consists of shoulders, arms, waist and legs, and is fitted on the nurse to transmit the force directly to the arms, waist and legs of the nurse. The powered suit is originated with the concept of master and slave system in one body.The arms , waist and legs have the pneumatic rotary actuators. Two kinds of actuators were developed. One is the actuators consist of concentric round boxes sliding each other with infinitesimal clearance. The other is the actuator utilized cuffs inserted between aluminum plates connected each other with rings.The action of the arms , waist and legs of the nurse were sensed with muscle hardness sensors.Two kinds of the sensors were developed. One is the sensor utilizing a cavity with diaphragm mounted a sensing tip. The dent of the sensing tip corresponding to the hardness of the muscle i.e., exerting force muscle produces pressure signal. The other is the sensor using load cell with a sensing tip mounted on the sensing surface. These pneumatic actuators have the advantages of simple structure, compact size, light weight, has possibility to realize smooth movement with tender touch.Experiments proved that the powered suit using the rotary actuators and the muscle sensors have feasibility and is able to be adopted as the prototype for practical equipment.