Volume 3, No. 1, March, 2015
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Development and Control of Flexible Spherical Actuator for Portable Rehabilitation Device

Yasuko Matsui, Tetsuya Akagi, and Shujiro Dohta
Department of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering, Okayama University of Science, Okayama, Japan
Abstract—This study aims at developing a potable rehabilitation device which can be safe to use during holding it. In our previous study, a novel flexible pneumatic cylinder that can be used even if it is deformed by external force has been developed. In this paper, a portable rehabilitation device using the flexible spherical actuator that consists of two ring-shaped flexible pneumatic cylinders is proposed and tested. The low-cost control system using four smallsized quasi-servo valves and an embedded controller is also developed. The spherical actuator is also improved so as to apply to the portable rehabilitation device. In addition, the attitude measuring system for attitude control of the device using a tiny embedded controller and two accelerometers is constructed and tested. The attitude control of the device using the measuring system is executed. As a result, the portable rehabilitation device that it is possible to give the rehabilitation motions to patients with attitude control can be realized.  

Index Terms—portable rehabilitation device, flexible pneumatic cylinder, flexible spherical actuator, embedded controller, low cost

Cite: Yasuko Matsui, Tetsuya Akagi, and Shujiro Dohta, "Development and Control of Flexible Spherical Actuator for Portable Rehabilitation Device," International Journal of Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 49-54, March 2015. doi: 10.12720/ijmse.3.1.49-54

General Information

ISSN: 2315-4527 (Print)
Abbreviated Title: Int. J. Mater. Sci. Eng.
Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Emeritus Dato' Dr. Muhammad Yahaya
DOI: 10.17706/ijmse
Abstracting/ Indexing: Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, Google Scholar, Crossref
E-mail: ijmse@iap.org