TY - GEN
T1 - Lateral balance supporting device for postural reflex ambulatory experiments
AU - Wojtara, Tytus
AU - Sasaki, Makoto
AU - Shimoda, Shingo
AU - Alnajjar, Fady
AU - Kimura, Hidenori
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - The human balance, the ability to keep ones body upright while standing or walking, deteriorates in old age or can be compromised after accidents or brain surgeries. With the aged society, age related balance problems are on the rise. Persons with balance problems are more likely to fall during their everyday life routines. Especially in elderly, falls can lead to bone fractures making the patient bedridden, weakening the body and making it more prone to other diseases. Health care expenses for a fall patient are often very high. There is a great deal of research being done on exoskeletons and power assists. However, these technologies concentrate mainly on the amplifications of human muscle power while balance has to be provided by the human themself. Our research has been focused on supporting human balance in harmony with the human's own posture control mechanisms such as postural reflexes. This paper proposes an artificial balancer that supports human balance through acceleration of a flywheel attached to the body. Appropriate correcting torques are generated through our device based on the measurements of body deflections. In this paper we present ambulatory experiments on a balance beam. These experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of our device in supporting balance while walking and the possibility of enhancing balance-keeping capability in human beings through the application of external torque.
AB - The human balance, the ability to keep ones body upright while standing or walking, deteriorates in old age or can be compromised after accidents or brain surgeries. With the aged society, age related balance problems are on the rise. Persons with balance problems are more likely to fall during their everyday life routines. Especially in elderly, falls can lead to bone fractures making the patient bedridden, weakening the body and making it more prone to other diseases. Health care expenses for a fall patient are often very high. There is a great deal of research being done on exoskeletons and power assists. However, these technologies concentrate mainly on the amplifications of human muscle power while balance has to be provided by the human themself. Our research has been focused on supporting human balance in harmony with the human's own posture control mechanisms such as postural reflexes. This paper proposes an artificial balancer that supports human balance through acceleration of a flywheel attached to the body. Appropriate correcting torques are generated through our device based on the measurements of body deflections. In this paper we present ambulatory experiments on a balance beam. These experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of our device in supporting balance while walking and the possibility of enhancing balance-keeping capability in human beings through the application of external torque.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84867421392&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/BioRob.2012.6290730
DO - 10.1109/BioRob.2012.6290730
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84867421392
SN - 9781457711992
T3 - Proceedings of the IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics
SP - 1765
EP - 1769
BT - 2012 4th IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BioRob 2012
T2 - 2012 4th IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BioRob 2012
Y2 - 24 June 2012 through 27 June 2012
ER -