Device Supporting Sitting Up Motion for Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

We propose a novel supporting device to help patients with Parkinson's disease to turn over and to take a sitting position on a bed. Patients with Parkinson's disease have difficulty with turning motion, which causes disability to achieve the sitting up position. Nevertheless, they can walk unaided by a caregiver in the case that the condition is not so serious. The device prototype is a vest on which air actuators are attached. We devised three kinds of air actuators comprising piled plastic sheets: bellowstype, fan-type and split-type. The air actuators push the patient body up as they are expanded by an air compressor. We estimated the necessary air actuator forces and ascertained their position on the vest through simulations. We conducted experiments to verify the prototype device with healthy participants. The obtained results indicate that the performance of the device suffices to help the user to complete the sitting up motion on a bed.