Development of Rodless Type Flexible Pneumatic Cylinder and Its Application

In Japanese society, an important problem of providing nursing care for the elderly has occurred. As a result, it is necessary to develop systems to aid in nursing care. The actuators required for such a system need to be flexible so as not to injure the body. The purpose of our study is to develop a flexible and lightweight actuator which can be safe enough to be attached to the human body. We propose new types of flexible pneumatic actuators that can be used even if the actuator is deformed by external forces. In this study, we tested rodless type flexible pneumatic cylinders and investigated characteristics of the cylinders. We also applied the tested cylinders to a rotary actuator for a master-slave robot arm.