Development of a Silicon Outer Fence Mold Actuator and Application to Welfare Devices

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在海绵橡胶上覆盖硅橡胶的气动软执行器（硅外栅栏模具执行器）。海绵橡胶的结构分为两种。一种是扁平型致动器，其海绵形状为扁平形状；另一种是夹持型致动器，其一层海绵由正方形形状切割。为了消除两种作动器的特性差异，明确了作动器的基本特性，并对其位置控制和轨迹控制进行了研究。从实验结果出发，阐明了夹持式作动器的控制性能。此外，为了表明执行器的有效性，我们将执行器应用于福利机器的主动支持者。通过一些实验结果表明，利用主动支架可以降低人体在倾斜运动中的负担程度。此外，我们将执行器应用于阻塞垫上，以实现身体压力的分散。

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 (Silicon Outer Fence Mold Actuator). The structure of the sponge rubber is divided into two types. One is flat type actuator whose sponge form is flat shape and the other is clipping type actuator whose one sponge layer is cut by square shape.In order to clear the difference of characteristics of two actuators, we cleared the basic characteristics of the actuators and investigated both position control and trajectory control with the actuators. From some experimental results, the control performance of the clipping type actuator was clarified. Furthermore, in order to indicate the effectiveness of the actuator, we applied the actuator to an active supporter for welfare machines. It was clarified that the burden degree of the body in leaning motion is reduced by making use of the active supporter through some experimental results. Furthermore, we applied the actuator to a congestion mat to realize the body pressure dispersion.