Development of tendon-driven assistance manipulator system by air pressure control

We suggest to develop the tendon-driven 2-link manipulator driven by pneumatic cylinder as the assist care lift for the rising and sitting on a chair of elderly people, disabled people or wheelchair users. The tendon-driven manipulator system developed in this subject makes use of the pneumatic cylinder as an actuator. By means of the flexible action caused by the compressibility of the air, the welfare system using pneumatic actuators can be expected as the human-friendly assist. This system is constructed by two parts, i.e., one is the tendon-driven manipulator and the other is actuator part using pneumatic cylinder, and they are separated. The pneumatic cylinder and each link are connected by the tendon through the pulley. In this research, taking account of using the manipulator as care lift, we verified the effect of pneumatic drive, in the view point of the precision of manipulator trajects in case of actual human care.