Power Assist International Corporation

Wakayama University

Eiichi Yagi

Motonobu Sato

Kazuo Sano

Upper arms are fixed to drive shafts of a pair of drive sources at or near respective left and right hip joints. The upper arms are coupled to an upper body trunk harness by first passive rotary shafts via third passive rotary shafts, and are mounted to a lower body trunk harness by a mounting device. Lower arms are fixed to drive source bodies, and are coupled to thigh harnesses by second passive rotary shafts via fourth passive rotary shafts. The first and second passive rotary shafts and third and fourth passive rotary shafts are angularly displaceable about axial lines in a lateral direction of the wearer and axial lines in an anteroposterior direction of the wearer, respectively. An acceleration/angular speed sensor fixed to the lower body trunk harness detects an acceleration of the body trunk in a vertical direction by landing of a foot.

Wearable assist robot apparatus

A power assist robot apparatus is disclosed which is capable of assisting heavy-object lifting action and walking movement with fewer driving sources, and a method is disclosed for controlling the power assist robot apparatus. Two power-assist electric motors are located near opposite lateral sides in a right-left direction of the wearer's waist, respectively. Each lower-limb assist arm has one end fixed to a rotary shaft of the power-assist electric motor and the other end to which a lateral side of the thigh is attached. An upper-body assist arm placed at the wearer's chest and a main frame that holds the two power-assist electric motors at both ends thereof and is placed at the wearer's waist are connected by a driven rotary shaft which is rotatable about a vertical axis and a driven rotary shaft which is rotatable about a right-left axis.

Growing community of inventors

Wakayama, Japan

Eiichi Yagi