Abstract
In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, acupoints refer to special points and areas on the meridian line of the human body. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the application of unique techniques such as pressing, kneading, rubbing, pushing, and patting to acupoints or massage with the help of specific tools has the effects of promoting blood circulation, dredging meridians, and eliminating fatigue. At present, most automatic massage devices are for large-area massage of the trunk, and few are specifically for acupoint massage of the limbs. First, this paper analyzes the characteristics of traditional Chinese medical acupoint massage and then obtains the design index of an automatic acupoint massage device. After that, based on the principle of a series elastic actuating mechanism, a flexible uni-acupoint massage device and control system, imitating the acupoint massage technique of traditional Chinese medicine, were designed. In order to analyze the massage force of the massage device, the man–machine contact dynamic model of the massage device was established, and the force of the massage device was simulated and analyzed. Finally, an experimental platform was built to verify the massage force and massage process of the massage device. The experimental results show that the massage device designed in this paper meets the indexes of traditional Chinese medical massage, in terms of the massage process and massage force, and verify the rationality of the design.
Highlights
Received: 28 January 2022Based on the guidance of the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, acupoint massage is a method of assisting treatment that has a long history in China for the prevention and treatment of chronic or degenerative diseases, by using different massage techniques such as pressing, kneading, rubbing, pushing, and patting [1,2]
Traditional acupoint massage mostly adopts manual operation, and the work is too heavy for traditional Chinese medicine doctors, while it is difficult for them to ensure a consistency of massage process and force [5]
The head of the massage device applies force downward perpendicular to the plane where the acupoint is located, and the force is strictly controlled in the range 10–80 N, from light to heavy, and when reaching the maximum contact force, it is maintained for 10 s, to simulate finger pressing
Summary
Based on the guidance of the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, acupoint massage is a method of assisting treatment that has a long history in China for the prevention and treatment of chronic or degenerative diseases, by using different massage techniques such as pressing, kneading, rubbing, pushing, and patting [1,2]. Micromachines 2022, 13, 370 developed a traditional Chinese medical massage robot composed of an adjustable massage platform and two five-DOF manipulators [10]; Jenjira Chimsa designed a massage device based on the ischemic compression massage method [11]; the researchers from Chengdu. Most of the existing massage devices directly realize the massage function through mechanical extrusion or vibration They lack the guidance of traditional Chinese medical massage theory and do not simulate massage techniques such as pressing, kneading, and releasing of traditional Chinese medical massage, so it is difficult to ensure the curative effect of acupoint massage [16]. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: the second section analyzes the acupoint massage techniques of traditional Chinese medicine, and obtains the technical indicators and work flow for an acupoint massage device; in the third section, the mechanism and control system of flexible uni-acupoint massage device are designed; in the fourth section, the human–machine contact dynamic model of uni-acupoint massage device is established; in the fifth section, the human–machine contact force is simulated and experimentally analyzed; application of the uni-acupoint massage device is verified
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