Design of an Extremely Lightweight Soft Actuator on a Pneumatic Corset for Support Lumbar Burden

Abstract

In the case of the treatment of low back pain, the lumbar corset which is the orthotic therapy is mainly used. However, there is a problem that the trunk muscle group is not used continuously by wearing the conventional lumbar corset for a long time, and muscle decline may occur. In this research, we propose an intelligent pneumatic corset that detects the forward bending posture with a sensor and automatically drives the soft actuator according to the attitude angle. It detects a forward-leaning posture in which the burden on the lumbar region increases, and automatically pressurizes the soft actuator. And, in the corset developed so far, the effect of supporting the muscle of the lumbar region was expected by compressing the abdomen and increasing abdominal pressure. In this paper, the operation support method by the restorative force when the soft actuator is deformed and the design of the intelligent pneumatic corset with built-in them are described.