The pneumatic soft actuators have both passive flexibility of the casing and active flexibility through pressurizing and depressurizing. These features are expected to be human-friendly actuators because they enable the approach of using an original soft system by controlling the internal air pressure. The current pneumatic soft actuator has two technical points of interest; control method of driving direction and operating pressure level, requiring an actuator to match these points. In this study, a pneumatic soft actuator with a silicone rubber case, SCSRA (Sponge Core Soft Rubber Actuator) was proposed and developed to respond to the requirement. Thought some experimental results, it is cleared that SCSRA controlled the driving system by realizing a large stroke in the low-pressure region of 30kPa or less as well as peeling and adhering the silicone film.
Pneumatic soft actuators exhibit both passive flexibility from the casing and active flexibility from pressurizing and depressurizing. These actuators are expected to be human-friendly and are often used in nursing and medical situations because they allow access to soft systems through control of the internal air pressure. The current design of pneumatic soft actuators has two technical points of interest: the control method for the drive direction and the operating pressure level. An actuator that addresses these points is required. In this study, a pneumatic soft actuator with a silicone rubber casing – called a sponge core soft rubber actuator (SCSRA) – is developed to solve these problems. SCSRAs can perform various functions by changing the bonding state of the silicon film. Thus, a large stroke can be achieved in a low-pressure area of ≤ 30 Pa, and the driving system can be controlled by peeling off and bonding the silicon film. We clarified the expansion and stiffness characteristics of the “bonded SCSRA” and “peeled SCSRA” when unpressurized and pressurized and measured the grip strength when walking in shoes with protrusions on the insole and single-tooth sandals with protrusions on the sole as example applications of the sensing ability.
In Japan, accidents involving the falling of elderly people are increasingly becoming a problem. To solve this problem, walking training is effective for preventing falls of elderly people. In this study, a walking training system was developed in which high-performance shoes are used to improve the efficiency of walking training. The high-performance shoes have three functions: 1) measurement of plantar pressure using changes in the inner pressure of the insole, 2) leg movement measurement using a six-axis motion sensor, and 3) applying stimulus to the sole of the foot by changing the shape of the insole. A unique rubber element was developed for these functions. Furthermore, a system to predict the behavior of patients during walking training was developed. Based on experimental results, four types of behavior of patients during walking training were predicted. Moreover, leave-one-person-out cross validation was performed by the random forest (RF) machine-learning algorithm, and the F-measure was calculated. As a result, the four types of behavior were classified with an F-measure of 78.6%.
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