Abstract
This article reports the pneumatic artificial muscles based on biomechanical characteristics of human muscles. A wearable device and a rehabilitation robot that assist a human muscle should have characteristics similar to those of human muscle. In addition, since the wearable device and the rehabilitation robot should be light, an actuator with a high power to weight ratio is needed. At present, the McKibben type is widely used as an artificial muscle, but in fact its physical model is highly nonlinear. Therefore, an artificial muscle actuator has been developed in which high-strength carbon fibres have been built into the silicone tube. However, its contraction rate is smaller than the actual biological muscles. On the other hand, if an artificial muscle that contracts axially is installed in a robot as compactly as the robot hand, big installing space is required. Therefore, an artificial muscle with a high contraction rate and a tendon-driven system as a compact actuator were developed, respectively. In this study, we report on the basic structure and basic characteristics of two types of actuators.
Highlights
In recent times, our society has been aging rapidly, leading to a labour shortage of young workers
The main advantages of the artificial muscle are its high power to weight ratio, low price, low maintenance, and ability to be used in rough environments
When applied to the robot hand, the developed tendon-driven system does not need such a large space as the conventional McKibben artificial muscle actuator, which use the contraction in the direction of the hand of the length, because the tendon can be arranged in the finger and the silicone tube is arranged in the relatively spacious palm
Summary
Our society has been aging rapidly, leading to a labour shortage of young workers. Robots, which are intended for use in the field of medical care and welfare, should be safe for the human environment, as they often come into contact with people. Several robot hands similar to human hands have been developed. Some have a tendon-driven system and others have a direct system In the former system (Liu et al 1998), wire ropes in the finger parts are moved using an actuator with a DC motor incorporated into the back of the hand.
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