[ Special Issue : Seoul Tech Capstone Design ]

Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers - Vol. 27, No. 3, pp.235-243

ISSN: 2508-5107 (Online)

Print publication date 15 Jun 2018

Received 08 Mar 2018 Revised 03 May 2018 Accepted 15 May 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7735/ksmte.2018.27.3.235

공압근육을 이용한 상지근력 보조용 웨어러블 로봇의 설계 및 제어

최현서^a ; 이현지^a ; 안태진^a ; 정현기^a ; 김정엽^a^{, *}

Design and Control of Upper-Body Assistive Wearable Robot Using Pneumatic Artificial Muscles

Hyun-Suh Choi^a ; Hyun-Ji Lee^a ; Tae-Jin Ahn^a ; Hyun-Ki Jung^a ; Jung-Yup Kim^a^{, *}

aDepartment of Mechanical System Design Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 232, Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea

Correspondence to: ^*Tel.: +82-2-970-6355, Fax: +82-2-971-7706, E-mail address: jyk76@seoultech.ac.kr (Jung-Yup Kim).

Abstract

This paper describes the design and control of a soft wearable robot capable of upper-limb muscle power assistance to prevent musculoskeletal injuries while lifting a patient repeatedly during a transfer process, in which a caregiver moves from a bed to a wheelchair. To minimize the weight of the wearable robot, pneumatic muscles were applied instead of typically used motors with reduction gears. The required specifications of the pneumatic artificial muscles were defined by mechanical analysis and manufactured specially for our robot. We also designed a soft wearing suit using fabric as the primary material and minimized the hard metal frames. This robot understands the intention of the user from the specific motions through the bracelet-type sensor named Myo that contains electromyography(EMG) sensors and accelerometers, without pressing a button. Finally, the performance of the wearable robot was experimentally verified through EMG measurements.

Keywords:

Pneumatic artificial muscle, Wearable robot, Power assist, Exoskeleton

Acknowledgments

본 연구는 서울과학기술대학교 교내 연구비의 지원으로 수행되었음. 또한, 2017년 제 9회 보조기기 아이디어 공모전에서 대상을 수여 받았음.

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