Wearable control valves driven by small sliding force

The purpose of our study is to develop a small-sized, lightweight, lower energy consumption and flexible control valve that can be safe enough to mount on the human body at a lower cost. In this study, two types of the wearable control valves driven by smaller sliding force were proposed and tested. One is a control valve that can open using a vibration motor. Another is the fluid control valve with a self-holding function that can hold the valve to open or close with no electrical power. The valve uses permanent magnets to apply the sliding force to open it. In this paper, the construction and operating principle of these valves such as a self-holding function were described. The statics and dynamics of these valves were also introduced. In addition, the pressure control system and position control system of McKibben artificial muscle using these valves were described.