A proposal of EMG-based wheelchair for preventing disuse of lower motor function

Nowadays Japan has faced on a super aging society, there are lots of elderly who need to be cared. Supporting their daily life and reducing loads for nursing care are crucial social issue to be solved. In particular, mobility should be a significant factor for maintaining their health, since limitation of the mobiliy due to an aging or disorder causes degradation of QOL. In the paper, we propose an EMG-based wheelchair control system for preventing a disuse of lower extremities. Experimental results of consecutive five days training with the proposed system reveals that it is effective for enhancing and maintaining motor function of lower extremity.