Development of McKibben artificial muscle with a long stroke motion

Abstract

Current virtual reality systems are not enough to realize a force feedback system for hands, arms, legs and so on. Furthermore, due to the ageing in Japanese society and the decreasing birthrate, an increasing problem of providing nursing care for the elderly has occurred. As a result, it is necessary to develop systems to aid in nursing care. The actuators necessary for such systems, need to be flexible so as not to injure the human body. The purpose of study is to develop a flexible and lightweight actuator which can be safe enough to be mounted on the human body. In this paper, a new type of McKibben artificial muscle that had a long stroke of more than 80% of its original length was proposed and tested. A long stroke lifting motion of a load with mass of 6 kg was realized. As results of experiments, it was found that the generated force was related to sealing characteristics of the actuator. The construction of the slide stage of the actuator was modified and the generated force of the actuator was improved.