A study for practical use of metal hydride actuators having high performances used for assistive devises

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A purpose of this project has been completed according to a schedule that we set up three year ago. A high power metal hydride (MH) actuator was developed and a prototype transfer aid was also designed using the actuator. The transfer was evaluated at a hospital by physical therapists from a point of view of usability. Furthermore, the prototype was improved based on the evaluation results in order to make it practical use.A basic study was carried out to design a soft MH actuator made of a polymer film for rehabilitation use. The optimal polymer material was determined for the soft actuator and some mechanical characteristics regarding thrust, speed, and hydrogen gas leak were measured. From the results, it was proved that the weight is 1/20 lighter, the thrust is 2 times larger, the speed is 2 times higher, and the price is much lower than the conventional MH actuator.The above two results show that the rehabilitation apparatus and the transfer aid using the new MH actuators will be designed for practical use in the near future.