Fundamental study of human adaptability to external assistance for physical movement

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14619
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied anthropology
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: MURAKI SATOSHI 九州大学, 芸術工学研究院, 教授 (70300473)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 福田 修 佐賀大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (20357891)
• Research Collaborator: Nursalbiah Nasir Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Universiti Teknologi MARA, 講師 ; Loh Ping Yeap 九州大学, 大学院芸術工学研究院, 助教 ; HAYASHI Keisuke 九州大学, 大学院芸術工学府芸術工学専攻 ; JUAN Chih Ting 九州大学, 大学院芸術工学府芸術工学専攻
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: テクノアダプタビリティ / 福祉 / アシスト / 筋活動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The development of assistive technology for human movement has progressed rapidly. The effective output of assistive devices needs appropriate coordination between users, i.e., humans and the machines. Therefore, the human physiological response and adaptation to external assistance should be considered when developing such devices. Given this background, we performed a study to evaluate the response of human muscles to external forces that assist with isometric knee extension. We observed the following: 1) Assistive forces relieve the exertion in the agonist muscles during isometric elbow flexion in both young and elderly individuals. 2) Effectiveness of assistive forces changes based on the level of the workload and the assistive force.

Free Research Field

人間工学