Development of a Wearable Robot for Assisting Carpentry Workers

• Main Authors: Junpei Naito, Goro Obinata, Atsushi Nakayama, Kazunori Hase
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2008-11-01
• Series: International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems
• Subjects: wearable robot; carpentry work; semi-active device.
• Online Access: http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/development_of_a_wearable_robot_for_assisting_carpentry_workers

The work of fitting ceiling boards is one of the hardest in carpentry, as it requires large muscular power. Hence there is a need to develop assisting apparatus for such work. In order to use this apparatus anywhere a wearable robot is the most suitable. As the robot must be autonomous and lightweight, a design requiring low power is proposed. A semi-active control method has been developed using springs, which requires low energy but satisfies the requirements of compliance and assistive force. In this paper several aspects of design, control and experiments of the developed prototype is explained. The experimental results prove that the robot reduces the muscular fatigue of carpentry worker by providing suitable assistive force.