Skill assist and power assist for periodic motions by using semi-active assist mechanism with energy control

This paper describes a skill assist method based on an energy control that employs a semi-active assist mechanism. For this mechanism, we have developed a soft and flexible power assist device that consists of elastic materials and a small DC motor. The assist force is the elastic force of the elastic materials, and this force is controlled by adjusting the length of the elastic materials by means of the DC motor. In our previous study, we confirmed that this mechanism has high power assist effectiveness. In this study, we consider correction of user motion correction by the semi-active assist mechanism in order to provide skill assist. We consider the motion to be an energy state and control the motion through energy control.