Toshihiro Yoshimitsu

Development of pneumatically assist walking system

We have developed a pneumatic assistance system for a human walker, who has a handicap or damage. The assistance system supports the human leg force by using pneumatic linear actuators when he desires to stretch his knee. The supportable angles of knee are large enough and the system can be widely used in the range of walking on ground or up/down stairs. This system consists of two outfits of each leg actuated by pneumatic linear cylinder and a pair of shoes having the weight sensors on the sole. When the human tries to walk, the force change is detected by sensors on shoes and the feature of signal forms in the appropriate conditions, i.e. walking on the ground or up/down the stairs are used to decide the assist timing of each assist control mode. The usefulness of this system is evaluated by the power reducing factor of human and his impression for usage.

Development and Application of Alternate Direction Air Compressor

This paper deals a new type of compressor that can deliver the air directions alternatively. This compressor is made by replacing the location of inhalation/exhalation air port into proper position of ordinary vane type air compressor. By using the compressor the direction or speed of cylinder can be selected changing the clockwise/counterclockwise rotational direction and the rotational speed of compressor and the extensional solenoid valves are not needed. In this report, we choose components of this compressor. The air motor that composes this compressor is paid to attention, and a new sample is examined.

Development of tendon-driven assistance manipulator system by air pressure control

We suggest to develop the tendon-driven 2-link manipulator driven by pneumatic cylinder as the assist care lift for the rising and sitting on a chair of elderly people, disabled people or wheelchair users. The tendon-driven manipulator system developed in this subject makes use of the pneumatic cylinder as an actuator. By means of the flexible action caused by the compressibility of the air, the welfare system using pneumatic actuators can be expected as the human-friendly assist. This system is constructed by two parts, i.e., one is the tendon-driven manipulator and the other is actuator part using pneumatic cylinder, and they are separated. The pneumatic cylinder and each link are connected by the tendon through the pulley. In this research, taking account of using the manipulator as care lift, we verified the effect of pneumatic drive, in the view point of the precision of manipulator trajects in case of actual human care.