Development of a Muscle Suit for the Upper Limb - Proposal of Posture Control Methods

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. 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. Since five McKibben artificial muscles are employed for controlling the shoulder joint which has three DOF, nonlinear control method is required for posture control compensating load changes. Neural network is applied and posture control is well undertaken