Development of a Shoulder Mechanism for a Muscle Suit Supporting Upper Limb Motion and Proposal of a Posture Control Method

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 lack of a metal frame and use of McKibben artificial muscle allow the muscle suit to be lightweight, making it realistic to use in daily life. Although all motion for the upper limb is realized, shoulder joint has difficulty in smooth motion because of DOF limitation. To overcome the limitation, new link mechanism is proposed and smooth motion for shoulder is achieved. Moreover, by using neural network, posture control method is developed in case of both the same load and additional load. The precise posture controllability is shown in this paper.