Development of a Stand Alone Wearable Power Assist Suit

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A stand alone wearable power assisting suit has been developed, which gives nurses the extra muscle they need to lift their patients and avoid back injuries. To stabilize the muscle hardness sensing system more, the sensor of the all-in-one design that built the sensor into meshed belt was developed and the sensing characteristic of the muscle sensor were improved. The suit was improved in mechanism and computer system. Link mechanism of waist and hip unit was slimed by using belts. The movable angle for external rotation of leg unit was increased. The computer and driver units were distributed on each actuator.It was proved that the each unit of the new suit transmitted assisting torque directly to each joint, and by wearing the suit to the body the weight could be lifted by half or less muscular power, i.e., muscular power became twice or more. The validity of the newly developed wrist unit and the improved waist and hip unit was proved. In order to demonstrate the practicability of the suit, the care operation was performed by women wearing the suit, and the woman of 50 Kg in weight could lift the man of 90 Kg in weight. The suit could run 20 minutes without charging the Ni-Cd batteries attached to the both upper legs.