Prototype of Wearable Robot with Tactile Sensor Measurable Contact Force Distribution with User

To improve safety of wearable assist robots, the authors make a prototype wearable robot suitable for the contact force distribution feedback control system. Because wearable assist robots contact the user and apply force directly, ensuring safety of the user is most important. In order to improve safety from the aspect of control, a contact force distribution feedback control system has been researched. The system controls contact force between the user and a robot directly. Although the system validated in principal with a simple robot model on simulation, validation with an actual robot has not done yet. There are no wearable robots measurable the contact force distribution with user. In order to measure the contact force distribution for the control system, two points: measurement reproducibility and measurement as distribution, are necessary. In this paper, a prototype robot that satisfies the two points is made. The robot is confirmed to have the two points necessary for the system by measurement experiment.

I. Introduction

As a solution for the problem of aging society [1], wearable assist robots have been developed especially in welfare, transport industry, manufacturing, and so on [2]–[15]. By applying force to a user directly, these robots reduce physical burden of the user.