Development of Wearable Pneumatic Actuator and Multiport Pressure Control Valve

Tetsuya Akagi, and Shujiro Dohta

Department of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Okayama University of Science, 1-1 Ridai-cho, Okayama 700-0005, Japan

Received:

April 28, 2005

Accepted:

August 29, 2005

Published:

October 20, 2005

Keywords:

flexible pneumatic cylinder, wearable actuator, multiport pressure control valve, wearable control valve, microcomputer

Abstract

Recently, force feedback devices in virtual reality and power assisted nursing care systems have received much attention and active research. Some involve an actuator and a driving device, such as a pneumatic cylinder and a control valve, worn by the user. Such devices must be compact, lightweight and flexible to avoid excessive load on and injury to the user. The purpose of our study is to develop a flexible and lightweight actuator which can be safe enough to be attached to the human body. We proposed new flexible pneumatic actuators that operate even if the actuator is deformed by external force. We tested a push-pull and flexible pneumatic actuator that moves straight and rotates. We proposed and developed a multiport pressure control valve that drives multiple wearable actuators while reducing the weight of the control valve for multiple degrees of freedom of motion.

Cite this article as:

T. Akagi and S. Dohta, “Development of Wearable Pneumatic Actuator and Multiport Pressure Control Valve,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.17 No.5, pp. 529-536, 2005.

Data files:

References

[1] K. Yamamoto et al., “Development of Wearable Power Assisting Suit,” Proc. of FLUCOME2003, Sorrento, 113.pdf, pp. 1-6, 2003.
[2] T. Akagi, S. Dohta et al., “Development of a Flexible Pneumatic Actuator with a Flexible Tube,” Proc. INTERMAC2001 Joint Tech. Conf., Tokyo, F-1093.pdf, pp. 1-10, 2001.
[3] T. Akagi, and S. Dohta, “Development of a Flexible Pneumatic Cylinder with a Flexible Tube,” Proc. of FLUCOME2003, Sorrento, 076.pdf, pp. 1-6, 2003.
[4] T. Akagi, and S. Dohta, “Development of Rodless Type Flexible Pneumatic Cylinder and Its Application,” Proc. of Actuator2004, Bremen, pp. 751-754, 2004.
[5] T. Akagi, and S. Dohta, “Development of Flexible Pneumatic Rotary Actuator Using Flexible Cylinder,” Proc. of FA2004, Denver, JS012.pdf, pp. 1-4, 2004.
[6] T. Akagi, and S. Dohta, “Development of Small Sized Multi-port Pressure Control Valve for Wearable Actuator,” Proc. of 13^th IEEE Int. Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, Kurashiki, pp. 649-654, 2004.
[7] T. Akagi, and S. Dohta, “Development of Wearable Pneumatic Actuator and Multi-port Pressure Control Valve,” Proc. of 4^th Int. Conf. on Advanced Mechatronics, Asahikawa, pp. 474-479, 2004.

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