Development of Portable Rehabilitation Device Driven by Low-Cost Servo Valve Using Tap Water

Hideyuki Obayashi, Tetsuya Akagi, Shujiro Dohta, Wataru Kobayashi, Yasuko Matsui, So Shimooka, Takashi Shinohara, and Mohd Aliff

Wearable driving systems for labor assistance and rehabilitation, such as power assist suits, have received much attentions and many studies have been done actively. In this study, the final target is to develop a low-cost home rehabilitation device driven by fluidic actuators and lowcost control valves. In the device, the size and cost of control valves become serious concerns. In the previous study, to realize a home rehabilitation device, the flexible spherical actuator that was able to give passive exercise to patients was developed. To drive the actuator, control valves are required. However, a servo valve that can control flow rate in analogue way is very expensive compared with other elements in the pneumatic driving system. Therefore, a low-cost servo valve using buckled tubes was proposed and tested. This valve can control both gas and liquid flow. In this paper, the development of the spherical actuator driven by servo valves using buckled tubes is described as a lowcost home rehabilitation device. The construction and operating principle of the spherical actuator and the servo valve using buckled tube is also described. In addition, the position control using the tested devices is carried out.

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research

Vol. 9

No. 3

353

359

10.18178/ijmerr.9.3.353-359

https://www.ijmerr.com/uploadfile/2020/0215/20200215062515291.pdf