Development of Simple Rehabilitation Device Using Flexible Linear Stepping Actuators

Rota Inoue, Tetsuya Akagi, Shujiro Dohta, Wataru Kobayashi, Yuya Eguchi, Nobuhiro Fukukawa, and Takashi Shinohara

The progress of the aging society in Japan has deteriorated. Therefore, the rehabilitation devices and power assistive devices have been desired from the viewpoint of quality of life. In such devices, a soft actuator is useful to construct a human-friendly rehabilitation device. In addition, the soft actuator with both a longer stroke and a larger generated force is desirable for a rehabilitation device. Therefore, we have developed a various type of flexible linear stepping actuators that can push and pull the flexible tube while changing the gripping position of the tube. They can generate larger force and realize position control without sensor. In this paper, the development of simple rehabilitation device for upper limb using two flexible linear stepping actuator is described. The construction and the operating principle of the simple rehabilitation device are also described. As a result, it can be confirmed that the tested device can give a passive exercise with larger moving area for human arm.

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research

Vol. 8

No. 2

316

322

10.18178/ijmerr.8.2.316-322

https://www.ijmerr.com/uploadfile/2019/0222/20190222044718128.pdf