Development of A Meal Assistive Exoskeleton made of Soft Materials for polymyositis patients

Main goal of this research is to design and fabricate an exoskeleton type assistive device for polymyositis patients, which is extremely compact, lightweight and also comfortable. In order to achieve this goal, the target motion of the device is focused on eating motion which is one of the most important task of daily life. Also, the exoskeleton is designed with soft materials such as fabric, rubber, wire and other compliant materials. The most rigid component used in the exoskeleton is a supporting part made of flexible board. By adopting these materials and concentrating on specific target motion, the number and size of the actuators can be reduced so that total complexity, weight and size of the device decrease. Also, the characteristics of soft material allows comfortable wearing sensation, low cost and good appearance. Therefore, the device becomes affordable and convenient. Polymyositis patients are chosen as the target user since the characteristics of their symptom can reduce complexity of the exoskeleton. Also a special controller is designed to utilize the available motion of the polymyositis patients. Some experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the exoskeleton.