JP2004105261A - Body wearing type power assistance instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a load on the muscle of a person and make a compact entire configuration of a power assistance instrument for using a power assistance instrument capable of being worn by the person. <P>SOLUTION: This power assistance instrument comprises a driving unit; a control unit; a power supply unit; and a sensor unit. The sensor unit determines an assistance power applied by the driving unit on the basis of either an acting force received by the person when the person acts or an estimated muscle value used by the person estimated in reference to the acting force received by the person when the person acts. With such an arrangement as above, the person can act in an attitude that a force more than a consumed energy is outputted with a less amount of energy by assisting the muscle power with the power assistance instrument that the person can wear on the body. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention includes a driving unit, a control unit, a power supply unit, and a sensor unit, and based on an acting force received by a person at the time of action by the sensor unit or an estimated value of a muscle force used by a person from an acting force received by the person at the time of action. In addition, the assisting force of the drive unit is determined, and the assisting force is applied only during the period when the burden on the muscular strength during the action of the wearer increases, and the human The present invention relates to a power assist device that can be attached to a device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, power assist devices worn by the human body, for example, when the caregiver performs a nursing operation such as holding and transporting a bedridden patient in nursing care, the burden on the waist increases, and it tends to cause low back pain etc. The aim is to always reduce the burden on human muscles at a constant rate. In this method, the energy value to be assisted becomes very large, and an actuator capable of maintaining a high torque for a long time is required as a driving unit.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In order to use a power assist device that can be actually worn on a person, there has been a demand for a method that can reduce the burden on the muscles of the person and reduce the size of the entire configuration.
[0004]
The present invention has been proposed in order to address the above-described problems, and a power assist device that can be worn on a person by reducing the burden on human muscles and reducing the overall configuration. It is intended to be put to practical use.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
A drive unit, a control unit, a power supply unit, and a sensor unit. The drive unit is based on an action force received by a person at the time of action by the sensor unit, or an estimated value of a muscular strength used by the person from the action force received by the person at the time of action. A person who wears on the body in such a way as to provide assisting force only during the period when the burden on the muscles during the action of the wearer is large and reduce the burden on the muscles. By assisting muscle power with a power assist device that can perform power, a person can behave with less energy and as if he or she exerted more power than the energy used.
[0006]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a driving unit, a control unit, a power supply unit, and a sensor unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. The assisting force of the drive unit is determined based on the estimated value of the muscular strength, and the assisting force is applied only during the period when the burden on the muscular strength at the time of the action of the wearer increases, reducing the burden on the muscular strength. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a half of the configuration of a power assist device that can be worn on a human body, and is symmetrical.
FIG. 7A is an explanatory diagram viewed from the front side, and FIG. 7B is an explanatory diagram viewed from the side surface. The artificial leg 1 includes a fixed portion 2 attached to the leg portion, a bent portion 3 that bends in accordance with the movement of the leg portion, a driving portion and a gear portion 4 that applies bending and stretching force to the bent portion, and a leg portion. A control unit 6 for controlling the drive unit so as to bend and stretch the bent portion by the same motion as the leg unit based on an electric signal of the sensor unit; a power unit 7; And a waist holding portion 8.
[0007]
As a power assist device that can be worn on a human body, a power assist device that is worn not only on the lower limb but also on the upper limb, or a power assist device that is worn on the upper limb and the lower limb may be used. The legs 1 'of a power assist device that can be worn by a human body are made of metal, for example, aluminum / magnesium / calcium / titanium or an alloy containing a main component, or resin, for example, polyurethane resin / polyamide resin / fluororesin / It is composed of a polyester resin or a resin mixture containing a main component. The leg 1 ′ of the power assist device that can be worn by a person on the body via the fixing part 2 can be fixed to the person's leg, and fitted into the person's leg from behind, or in a form that covers the leg. Yes, a fixing method using a belt or magic tape may be used. The leg 1 ′ of the power assist device that can be worn on a human body can be freely rotated by the bent portion 3. The angle θ between the legs can be freely changed at the bent portion 3 by the driving portion 4. The drive unit 4 can apply a motor, an air actuator, or a hydraulic motor, and obtains a large torque by a combination of gears. The bent portion controls the rotation of the motor by a pinion-rack mechanism, a piston-crank mechanism, or the like. It can be driven by changing to linear motion by belt drive via a pulley. Further, the bent portion is provided with a stopper so that the angle θ ′ of the human leg does not exceed 180 °. The driving unit may use an elastic body that does not require a driving power source, or a magnetic repulsive force of the same pole of a permanent magnet material or an electromagnet.
[0008]
A drive unit, a control unit, a power supply unit, and a sensor unit. The drive unit is based on an action force received by a person at the time of action by the sensor unit, or an estimated value of a muscular strength used by the person from the action force received by the person at the time of action. A person who wears on the body in such a way as to provide assisting force only during the period when the burden on the muscles during the action of the wearer is large and reduce the burden on the muscles. By assisting muscle power with a power assist device that can perform power, a person can behave with less energy and as if he or she exerted more power than the energy used.
[0009]
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the arrangement of sensors for detecting the movement of the legs provided on the shoe portion. Reference numeral 9 denotes the sole of the foot, and the sensor is disposed on the toe and the heel at the position 10.
[0010]
FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing an arrangement of sensors provided at a portion where a power assist device that can be worn by a person on a body comes into contact with muscles of a leg of a person, 11 is a thigh of a person, Reference numeral 12 denotes a human knee, and the sensor is arranged at a position 13 below the muscle on the front side of the thigh.
[0011]
FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing how to detect a force applied to a human leg. As an example, according to the force applied to the leg in a bent state, the toe and the heel of the sole are applied. In contrast to the electric signal output from the attached sensor, it is estimated from the electric signal output from the sensor attached to the toe and the heel of the sole about the section a where the muscle strength when stretching the bent leg increases. The muscular strength of the leg is output as an electric signal, and the controller outputs a guessed force via the controller. Here, the number of sensors provided may be one or two or more. Further, the sensor is not limited to the sole, and may be arranged on the thigh of the lower limb or the palm or arm of the upper limb. As the sensor, a pressure sensor, an acceleration sensor, a speed sensor, or a position sensor can be used, or a combination thereof.
[0012]
An embodiment of the operation using the present invention will be described below. For example, there is a problem in that when a caregiver performs an operation such as holding a bedridden patient and transporting the patient in caregiving, the burden on the lower back is large and lower back pain is likely to occur. For example, in the case of the raising operation, the person of the present invention wears a power assist device that can be worn on the body, the caregiver bends the legs, turns his / her hands from the neck and waist of the bedridden patient, and moves down the back. This is a power assist device that can hold the bedridden patient's upper body in the direction of the caregiver and stretch the legs bent at this time. In the case of reducing by assisting, the force to lift the bedridden patient on the legs when raising it is applied to the sensor arranged in the direction of the sole of the shoe, an electric signal is output from the sensor, and the output electric signal is A command is input to the control unit, and a command is issued to drive the drive unit in a direction in which the angle θ of the legs of the power assist device capable of being worn by a person on the body by operating the control unit is increased. Energy use of the results to the caregiver so that the person is reduced as compared with the case where not equipped with a power assist device that can be worn on the body.
[0013]
【The invention's effect】
The present invention is configured as described above and includes a driving unit, a control unit, a power supply unit, and a sensor unit, and the human uses the acting force received by the person at the time of action or the acting force received by the person at the time of the action at the sensor unit. The assisting force of the drive unit is determined based on the estimated value of the muscular strength, and the assisting force is applied only during a period when the muscular strength at the time of the action of the wearer increases, thereby reducing the muscular force. By assisting muscle strength with such a power assist device that can be worn on the human body, a human can behave with a small amount of energy as if he or she exerted more power than the used energy.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing, from the front, a one-leg configuration of a power assist device that can be worn on a human body according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 detects movement of a leg provided on a shoe. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the arrangement of sensors. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the arrangement of sensors provided at a portion where a power assist device that can be worn on a human body comes into contact with muscles of a human leg. Explanatory diagram showing output characteristics of a sensor unit 5 and a drive unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.
1 A power assist device that can be worn by a person 2 A fixed part 3 A bent part 4 A drive part and a gear part 5 A sensor part 6 A control part 7 A power supply part 8 A waist holding part 9 A sole part 10 A sensor of a sole part Position 11 thighs 12 knees 13 thigh sensor positions

Claims (13)

A human body comprising a drive unit, a control unit, a power supply unit, and a sensor unit, wherein the sensor unit measures an acting force received by a person at the time of action, and determines an assisting force by the drive unit based on the acting force. Power assist device that can be attached to Equipped with a drive unit, a control unit, a power supply unit, and a sensor unit, the sensor unit measures the force exerted by the person at the time of action, estimates the muscular strength used by the person from the action force received by the person at the time of action, and A power assist device that can be worn on a body by a person, wherein the assisting force of a drive unit is determined based on an estimated value. A driving unit, a control unit, a power supply unit, and a sensor unit. A person who wears on the body in such a way as to provide assisting force only during the period when the strain on the person's muscular strength is increased during the action and reduce the strain on the muscular strength. The power assist device according to claim 1, wherein the power assist device is capable of: The power assist device according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein a part to be worn is an upper limb or a lower limb or both. The power assist device according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein an electromagnetic motor is used as the driving unit. 4. The power assist device according to claim 1, wherein a pneumatic actuator is used as the drive unit. 4. The power assist device according to claim 1, wherein a hydraulic actuator is used as the drive unit. 4. The power assist device according to claim 1, wherein an elastic body is used as the driving unit. The power assist device according to claim 1, wherein a pressure sensor is used as the sensor unit. The power assist device according to claim 1, wherein an acceleration sensor is used as the sensor unit. The power assist device according to claim 1, wherein a speed sensor is used as the sensor unit. The power assist device according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein a position sensor is used as the sensor unit. The power assist device according to claim 1, wherein an output signal as a muscular strength estimated based on a measurement value of the sensor unit is input to the control unit via wireless communication.

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