Development of muscle suit for supporting manual worker

Abstract

A "muscle suit" that will provide muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed as a wearable robot. The muscle suit consists of a mechanical armor-type frame and McKibben artificial muscle. Using a new link mechanism for the shoulder joint which consists of two half-circle links with four universal joints in total mounted at both ends of each link, all motion for the upper limb has been realized. Applying the muscle suit to non-healthy people such as elderly people and/or disable one requires very high-level safety and usability, from the practical point of view. We then in the first place for the practical use, apply the muscle suit to the manual worker. In this paper, we introduce how we can apply the muscle suit for a manual worker.