JP2008079731A - Massaging machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a massaging machine simply acquiring a massaging operation with optional flexibility. <P>SOLUTION: This massaging machine is provided with a massaging mechanism consisting of one or a plurality of joints, and a therapeutic part driven by the massaging mechanism and applying the massaging operation to a human body. This machine is further provided with an actuator 10 for actuating the respective joints, a displacement detection means 11 detecting the displacements of the respective joints, a force detection means 12 detecting a force applied to the therapeutic part and a control part 13 controlling the actuator; and the control part has a flexibility control means virtually providing the therapeutic part with inertial, viscous and elastic characteristics using the displacement information acquired by the displacement detection means and the force information acquired by the force detection means. This massaging machine can provide various and optional flexibility by controlling the operation and the force and providing the therapeutic part with the virtual inertial, viscous and elastic characteristics in a software phase. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a massage machine.

In the massage machine that can give massage operation such as massage massage operation to the back of the human body, as shown in Patent Document 1, flexibility is given to the treatment part using pneumatic equipment, springs, etc. However, the contact when the treatment part comes into contact with the human body is softened, but with such a configuration, only the flexibility depending on the spring constant and the elasticity of the air pressure can be realized, and a variety of arbitrary flexibility In order to realize the above, it is only possible to replace hardware such as a spring, and it has been difficult to realize various arbitrary flexibility.
Japanese Patent No. 3793900

  This invention is invented in view of said conventional problem, Comprising: It aims at providing the massage machine which can obtain the massage operation | movement which has arbitrary softness | flexibility simply.

  In order to solve the above problems, a massage machine according to the present invention includes a massage mechanism including one or a plurality of joints, and a treatment unit that is driven by the massage mechanism and applies a massage operation to the human body. An actuator that drives each of the joints, a displacement detection unit that detects a displacement of each joint, a force detection unit that detects a force applied to the treatment unit, and a control unit that controls the actuator The control unit is configured to use the displacement information obtained by the displacement detection unit and the force information obtained by the force detection unit to virtually give inertia, viscosity, and elastic characteristics to the treatment unit. It is characterized by having sex control means.

  In addition to requiring hard materials such as pneumatic equipment and springs, and controlling the motion or force, the virtual inertia, viscosity, and elastic characteristics are softly imparted to the treatment area. Flexibility can be obtained.

  Even if the flexibility control means controls the motion of the actuator so as to realize a desired flexibility characteristic based on the force detected by the force detection means, the motion information detected by the displacement detection means The actuator force may be controlled so as to realize a desired flexibility characteristic. In the former case, when the back drivability is low, the back drivability can be increased by software, and it is possible to realize arbitrary flexibility and apply the exercise control of the conventional massage machine. When drivability is high, the back drivability can be lowered by software and arbitrary flexibility can be realized.

  Further, the control unit may perform flexibility control with respect to the movement of the treatment unit in the translation direction, or may perform flexibility control with respect to the movement of the treatment unit in the rotation direction.

  In the case where the joint of the kneading mechanism is composed of a plurality of rotation or translational joints and can cause the treatment unit to perform a two-dimensional or more movement, the control unit can rotate the axis around which the treatment unit can generate force. It is desirable to provide flexibility separately for each. A treatment operation resembling a human procedure can be obtained.

  At this time, the control unit varies the flexibility given to each axis direction or each axis according to the treatment site or treatment technique, or gives flexibility to each axis direction or around each axis according to an instruction from the user. It is desirable to change the sex. A variety of massages and user-preferred massages can be obtained.

  It has a human body support surface that receives the front side of the human body, and the kneading mechanism obtains a favorable result when it is a forward tilt type in which the treatment part is brought into contact with the back of the human body that the front side is received by the human body support surface Can do.

  In the present invention, a variety of arbitrary flexibility can be obtained in order to impart virtual inertia, viscosity, and elastic characteristics to the treatment part in a soft manner, thereby reducing pain for the user. From a soft massage that can be done to a firm and hard massage, it can be obtained without the need for replacement of members, and since it does not use hard members such as springs, the massaging mechanism is lightweight and compact. Can be designed to

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of a chair-type massage machine, in which a joint for two translational directions and a joint for one rotation are shown. In the massage machine which massages by attaching the treatment part 1 to the front-end | tip of the kneading mechanism 30 comprised from a total of three joints, and performing the operation | movement for massage to the treatment part 1 made to contact a human body, FIG. As shown, a motor 10 as an actuator, a displacement sensor 11 constituted by a rotary encoder for detecting displacement, and a force sensor 12 constituted by a load cell for detecting a force received from the treatment unit 1 are attached to the joint. Based on the output value of the sensor 11 or the force sensor 12, the control circuit 5 determines a command value for driving the motor 10. In FIG. 3, 13 is a motor driver, 14 is a DA converter, 15 is a counter, and 16 is an AD converter.

  In the above determination, the inertia, viscosity, and elastic characteristics that achieve the desired flexibility are used instead of using hard members such as pneumatic equipment and springs in order to give the treatment part 1 flexibility. Is virtually set, and flexibility is realized in the treatment unit 1 by software by flexibility control.

  The flexibility control means that virtually realizes the inertia, viscosity, and elastic characteristics in the treatment portion is configured as a part of the control circuit 5, and for example, a force is applied to realize the flexibility characteristics as shown in the following equation. The movement is controlled by measuring, or the force is controlled by measuring the displacement.

Where f is a force vector, Md is a desired inertial characteristic matrix, Dd is a desired viscosity characteristic matrix, Kd is a desired elastic characteristic matrix, x is a translation / rotation displacement vector of the treatment part, and xd is a target of the treatment part ( The natural length of the elastic element) is a translation / rotation displacement vector.

  In the above formula, flexibility is expressed by a simple linear model, but this is an example, and other models such as a nonlinear model may be used.

  The characteristic matrices Md, Dd, and Kd in the above equation are parameters that determine flexibility, and can be arbitrarily set including the case where all are zero. If the inertial characteristic matrix Md is increased, the treatment unit 1 is less likely to accelerate. If the viscosity characteristic matrix Dd is increased, the treatment unit 1 is less likely to speed up, and if the elastic property matrix Kd is increased, the treatment unit 1 is increased. Becomes difficult to displace.

  FIG. 4 shows a block diagram when controlling force by measuring force, and FIG. 5 shows a block diagram when controlling force by measuring displacement. In the former, a motion that achieves a desired flexibility characteristic by measuring force is calculated from the above equation, and the motion of the treatment unit 1 is controlled so as to achieve the desired motion by obtaining the desired motion. In the latter, the force for measuring the displacement and realizing the desired flexibility characteristic is calculated from the above equation, the target force is obtained, and the force of the treatment unit 1 is controlled so as to realize the target force.

  An example of flexibility control in the x direction shown in FIG. 2 is shown in FIG. Note that the inertia, viscosity, and elastic characteristics shown in FIG. 1 are virtual, and actually no hard members are required.

  Control of the treatment unit 1 is divided into a case where the translation direction is controlled in the translation / rotation displacement vector x, and a case where the rotation direction is controlled, but both translation and rotation can be performed simultaneously. The number of axis directions and the number around each axis that can realize flexibility depend on the number of joints of the massage machine. FIG. 8A shows massage by translational motion, and FIG. 8B shows massage by rotational motion.

  In the x, y, and z directions in FIG. 2, it is possible to set soft in the x direction and hard in the yz direction. For example, in the case of a massage that pushes the shoulder from above, the flexibility in the z direction greatly affects the massage operation. If you want to hold the shoulder firmly from above, set the softness in the z direction hard, and if you want to hold the shoulder softly, set the softness in the z direction soft.

  In addition, if a table as shown in FIG. 6 is prepared according to the treatment site and treatment technique, and different parameters are set according to each treatment site and treatment technique, the flexibility corresponding to each treatment site and treatment technique can be set. Sex can be imparted to the operation of the treatment element 1. By describing the parameters for each axis direction and around each axis, a massage that is soft in a certain direction and hard in a certain direction can be realized for each massage course. Especially in back massage and shoulder massage, the direction of softening and the direction of softening are different, and by changing the flexibility for each part, it is possible to realize a massage close to a human procedure.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 7, the user may operate the operation unit 17 attached to the massage machine 2 to set flexibility in each axial direction or around each axis. Here, a configuration has been shown in which flexibility can be set for all axis directions and all axes that can be set, but the number of axes and the number of axes may be reduced to make it easier for the user to understand.

  In addition, although the massage machine shown in FIG. 2 is a chair type, the present invention can also be applied to a hand-held type massage machine. Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the support body 40 includes human body support surfaces 41 and 42 that receive the front side of the human body, and the back side of the human body whose front side is received by the human body support surfaces 41 and 42 of the support body 40. Thus, the present invention may be applied to a forward-tilting type composed of a squeezing mechanism 30 for bringing the treatment unit 1 into contact with the rear. In addition, although the thing of the example of illustration has the seat part 44 and receives a massage in a seating state, it may receive a massage in a standing position.

  Such a forward tilt type massage machine performs massage with the human body sandwiched between the kneading mechanism 30 and the human body support surfaces 41 and 42, and thus there is a possibility that excessive force is applied to the human body. However, application of the present invention can prevent an excessive force from being applied and improve safety.

  In the above description, flexibility is realized without using any hard member such as a pneumatic device or a spring, but this does not prevent the use of a hard member such as a pneumatic device or a spring.

It is a schematic diagram of an example of embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic block diagram same as the above. It is a block diagram of a control system same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of an example of control same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of the other example of control same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of another example of control same as the above. It is the schematic of another example same as the above. (a) (b) is explanatory drawing about translation and rotation. It is a schematic side view of another example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Treatment part 2 Massage machine 5 Control circuit 10 Motor 11 Displacement sensor 12 Force sensor 30 Itching mechanism Md Inertial characteristic matrix Dd Viscosity characteristic matrix Kd Elastic characteristic matrix

Claims (9)

  A massage machine comprising a kneading mechanism composed of one or a plurality of joints, and a treatment unit that is driven by the kneading mechanism and applies a massaging operation to the human body, the actuator driving each of the joints, Displacement detection means for detecting the displacement of the joint, force detection means for detecting the force applied to the treatment section, and a control section for controlling the actuator, the control section being obtained by the displacement detection means A massage machine comprising: flexibility control means for virtually giving inertia, viscosity, and elastic characteristics to the treatment portion using the displacement information obtained and the force information obtained by the force detection means.   The massage machine according to claim 1, wherein the flexibility control means controls the movement of the actuator so as to realize a desired flexibility characteristic based on the force detected by the force detection means.   The massage machine according to claim 1, wherein the flexibility control means controls the force of the actuator so as to realize a desired flexibility characteristic based on the motion information detected by the displacement detection means. .   The massage machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the control unit performs flexibility control with respect to the translational movement of the treatment unit.   The massage machine according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the control unit performs flexibility control with respect to the movement of the treatment unit in the rotation direction.   The joint of the kneading mechanism is composed of a plurality of rotation or translational joints, and can cause the treatment unit to perform two-dimensional or more movements, and the control unit can rotate the axis or axis around which the treatment unit can generate force. The massage machine according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein flexibility is provided separately for each.   The massage machine according to claim 6, wherein the control unit varies the flexibility to be applied in each axial direction or around each axis according to a treatment site or a treatment technique.   The massage machine according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the control unit changes the flexibility applied to or around each axis in accordance with an instruction from the user.   The human body support surface which receives the front side of a human body is provided, and the kneading mechanism is a forward tilt type in which the treatment portion is brought into contact with the back surface of the human body which is received by the front surface side of the human body support surface. The massage machine of any one of -8.

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