Development of Wearable-Agri-Robot ∼mechanism for agricultural work∼

Abstract

Recently, It has become a rapidly aging society. Coupled with a decrease in the number of farmers, this has becomes a serious problem in agriculture. Agricultural work includes a great deal of heavy work and special work postures, imposing a large physical strain on farmers. Therefore, we developed the Wearable Agri-Robot, which was designed as an exoskeletal mechanism to assist in the wearer's work. This study evaluates the degree of freedom realized by forcusing on the range of motion of the joints. Using this method, we evaluated the articular structure of the Wearable Agri-Robot. We investigated the possibility of using it to assist in agricultural work by analyzing the motion required for thie type of work. In this work, we narrowed down the intended operations to the harvesting of Japanese radishes, and validated the effect of the Wearable Agri-Robot on the wearer using myoelectric potential measurement. As a result, it was ascertained that wearing the Wearable Agri-Robot could alleviate the burden on wearer by assisting with agricultural work.