Is the lower limb better at controlling than the upper limb? Unlocking the potential of the lower limb by clarifying and supporting the clumsiness through physics and psychology

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K18699
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 20:Mechanical dynamics, robotics, and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: KOMORI Masaharu 京都大学, 工学研究科, 教授 (90335191)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 野村 理朗 京都大学, 教育学研究科, 准教授 (60399011) ; 寺川 達郎 京都大学, 工学研究科, 助教 (10847982)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 下肢 / 操作

Outline of Final Research Achievements

An experiment was conducted to investigate clumsiness of the lower limb. It was showed that when subjects intend to exert force with their foot in the same direction as the direction shown on the display, the direction of force intended by the subjects differed from the direction of the force actually exerted in some cases. We quantitatively analyzed the difference between the displayed direction and the actual direction and showed that there were three notable characteristics. Next, an operation system was built that takes these characteristics into account and calculates appropriate operation commands from measurement data of the force actually exerted by the foot. We then built an evaluation system and used it to evaluate the proposed operation command method and demonstrated its effectiveness.

Free Research Field

機械工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

上肢は多自由度な動作が可能であり、ロボット等を操作することができる。下肢も多自由度な動作が可能であるため上肢と同様の操作ができる可能性があるが、下肢は上肢と比べて不器用であるという課題がある。しかし、下肢の不器用さについて解明し、それを支援することができれば、下肢で上手に操作できる可能性がある。本研究では実験を行い、下肢の不器用さについてその一面を明らかにした。また、不器用さを支援する操作指令方法を構築した。これにより下肢で上手に操作できる可能性があることを示したことは、学術的、社会的に意義があると考えられる。