| 研究課題/領域番号 |
21K17791
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| 研究機関 | 佐賀大学 |
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研究代表者 |
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| 研究期間 (年度) |
2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| キーワード | ergonomics / gait analysis / motion analysis / electromyography |
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| 研究実績の概要 |
As technology advances and world population ages, lower‐limb exoskeletons are expected to become more widespread. However, there are still substantial barriers in reducing the metabolic cost required for walking using these exoskeletons. Because walking is largely an unconscious and automated activity, users of exoskeletons often do not reduce their muscular activity to benefit from the assistive force provided and adjust their gait in ways that are counterproductive. This research aims to improve our understanding of these barriers to reduce the metabolic costs of walking through controlled experiments with healthy human subjects. It is important to understand the adaptations to these external forces to design exoskeletons that can effectively complement and cooperate with its user human user.
In the first and second year, a custom ankle exoskeleton testbed that can provide precise plantarflexion assistance in order to perform the experiments stated above was developed. The ankle exoskeleton testbed needs to have the function to control the torque exerted based on the angle of the ankle as well as other inputs. By synchronising the actuators with a motion capture system and sensors in the exoskeleton, the developed exoskeleton is able to provide precisely timed assistance to the participants depending on their gait phase. Additionally, a review on human adaptations to external assistive forces in exoskeletons was conducted.
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| 現在までの達成度 (区分) |
現在までの達成度 (区分)
3: やや遅れている
理由
Due to the delays in the first year caused by COVID‐19, the development of the exoskeleton testbed could only be completed in the second year.
In an attempt to make up for the delays, a review on human adaptations to external assistive forces and performed and published. Additionally, a related study where the force provided from a walker are used to enhance the interaction and cooperation between human and machine, which will be used to inform the study designs, hypotheses, and experiment protocols of future studies, was performed and published.
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| 今後の研究の推進方策 |
The current plan is to use the ankle exoskeleton developed to perform the planned experiment in the last year. To make up for lost time, the experiments is planned to be performed back-to-back to minimise the time requied to setup the experiment. The focus remains to improve our understanding of the factors preventing a user from reducing their muscular activity
when assistive forces are provided during walking. By varying the walking task/instruction as well as the parameters of assistance provided, I
hope to gain insights into ways to improve the effectiveness of exoskeletons.
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| 次年度使用額が生じた理由 |
Due to delays caused by COVID‐19, the experiment planned to be conducted in the second year will be conducted in the third year. The funds will be used to perform the experiment and to purchase additional components for the prototype if required
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