Development of a Parallel Wire Mechanism to Mist the Upper Body Motion and Attitude of Disabled People

本研究开发了一种上身运动辅助系统，旨在使肢体残疾的残疾人能够根据自己的意愿控制上身运动和姿态。辅助系统采用平行线机构，平台由钢丝悬挂和移动。平行线机构可以将执行器布置在底座上，具有功率大、速度快、精度高等优点；由于平行线的驱动，还具有轻量化和机身柔韧性等优点。因此，它们适合安装在车身上的辅助系统。然而，由于平行线机构具有多自由度和冗余度，对驱动其运动平台的平行线进行张力分析是很困难的。本文提出了用考虑向量闭合条件的特征值分析计算任意方向外力作用下钢丝绳最大张力的有效方法。该方法使…成为可能设计了一种结构紧凑、受小力驱动的平行线机构，并实际开发了上半身运动辅助系统。为了验证所开发的辅助系统对上半身运动的辅助效果，考虑了定位精度和力对人体的作用。制作了能够测量钢丝绳张力变化的称重传感器，并将其安装到所研制的系统中。同时，建立了一个可以同时测量辅助系统和佩戴者姿态的图像记录系统。我们将上位运动辅助系统安装到健康的成年伴侣身上，并确认了其运动。利用该测量系统对穿戴者的行为和钢丝张力的变化进行了测量。因此，可以辅助佩戴者的前后屈曲、侧屈和摆动的准确性，并且不会对身体产生多余的力。因此，所开发的平行线机构有助于辅助上半身的运动。较少

This study develops an upper body motion assist system that aims at enabling disabled people with lower limb disability to control their upper body motion and attitude holding by their own will. The assist system employs a parallel wire mechanism of which the platform is suspended and moved by wires. Parallel wire mechanisms can arrange the actuators on the base and have advantages such as high power, high speed and high accuracy ; they offer other advantages in lightness and body flexibility due to the wire actuating. Thus, they are suitable for the assist system attached to the body. However, as parallel wire mechanisms have multi-degree-of-freedom and redundancy, the analysis of tension applied to the wires to drive their moving platform is difficult. This paper proposes the effective method for evaluating the maximum wire tension induced by external forces in arbitrary-direction, by the eigenvalue analysis with considering the vector-close condition. The method makes it possible to … More design a parallel wire mechanism to be compact and driven by small force.By using the proposed method, we actually developed the upper body motion assist system. In order to confirm the assistance effect by the developed assist system on upper body motion, accuracy of positioning and action of forces on human body was considered. Load cell that can measure the variation of wire tension was made and equipped to the developed system. Simultaneously, an image record system that can measure the pose of both the assist system and the wearer was built up. We attached the upper motion assist system to healthy adult mates and confirmed its motion. The behaviors of the wearer and variation of the wire tensions were also measured by the aforementioned measuring system. As a result, the forward-backward flexion, side flexion and swing of the wearer can be assisted accuracy and the exceeded forces are not acted to the body. Thus, the developed parallel wire mechanism is useful to assist the upper body motion. Less