Development of Power Assist Glove using Pneumatic Artificial Rubber Muscle

The purpose of this study is to develop a wearable power assist device for hand grasping in the activity of daily living of aged or disable person. In a wearable device, a mechanism is required to have a human friendliness such as a safety, a lightweight to prevent an accident and to improve the wearable condition. In order to satisfy these requirements, extended curved and linear type pneumatic rubber artificial muscles are developed as actuators for this glove. By using the rubber muscles, the glove can assist various daily finger tasks owing to its flexibility and lightweight. In this paper, the structures of two types of rubber muscles and the power assist glove are described, and the characteristics of these devices are discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of the glove to decrease the muscular fatigue is experimentally evaluated.