JP2010131063A - Transfer assist device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a transfer assist device which relieves stress on a care-receiver. <P>SOLUTION: The transfer assist device includes a movable carriage 1, an arm 2 which can horizontally rotate and can incline, and whose base end is attached to the carriage, a body holder 3 which is attached to the arm 2, a driving means which drives the arm 2, and a controller which controls driving of the driving means. The body holder 3 includes a surface pressure dispersion member 40 which disperses the contact pressure generated by contact with a human body on a surface which comes in contact with the human body. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a transfer support apparatus.
For example, the present invention relates to a transfer support device that assists a transfer operation when a person who is difficult to walk independently moves from a bed to a wheelchair or from a wheelchair to a toilet seat or the like.

  It is not easy for a cared person who is difficult to walk independently to perform a transfer operation such as moving from a bed to a wheelchair alone. Usually, caregiver's help is required, but the help of the transfer operation has a great physical burden for the caregiver and also a great mental burden for the care recipient. In recent years, a device for supporting a transfer operation of a person who has difficulty walking independently has been developed.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a transfer support apparatus in which a support column is tiltably erected on a turntable and a receiving plate (holding tool) is provided at the end of the support column.
When a care receiver performs a transfer operation using the transfer support apparatus, first, the support plate is tilted to bring the receiving plate toward the care receiver's body. Then, the cared person gets on the holding tool or clings to hold the body on the receiving plate so that the weight can be deposited. When the column is raised in this state, the cared person's body is lifted. After moving to the transfer destination, tilting the support post completes the transfer operation.
JP 2006-305092 JP

During the transfer operation, the cared person deposits his weight on the receiving plate, but at this time the cared person's body is strongly pressed, and there is a problem that there is stress or sometimes painful pain. there were.
FIG. 15 is a diagram schematically showing a state in which a cared person's weight is entrusted to a conventional receiving plate (holding tool). As shown in FIG. 15, since the shape of the receiving plate 200 and the body shape of the care receiver N do not match, the contact area between the receiving plate 200 and the body is narrow.
And since the whole weight is entrusted to this narrow contact area, a large local pressure is applied to the cared person's body, resulting in a great stress on the cared person's body.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a transfer support apparatus that can relieve stress for a cared person.

  The transfer assist device of the present invention includes a movable carriage part, an arm part that can be horizontally rotated and tilted and has a base end attached to the carriage part, a body holder attached to the arm part, A driving unit configured to drive the arm unit; and a control unit configured to drive and control the driving unit, wherein the body holding member disperses a contact pressure generated by contact with the human body on a surface that contacts the human body. A dispersion member is provided.

  In such a configuration, when the body of the cared person approaches the body holder and the surface pressure dispersion member comes into contact with the body of the cared person, contact pressure is applied from the body of the cared person to the surface pressure dispersion member. . Then, the shape of the surface pressure dispersion member is flexibly changed by the contact pressure. As the surface pressure dispersion member is deformed, the contact area between the body of the care recipient and the surface pressure dispersion member increases. As a result, the body of the care recipient is received by the wide area of the surface pressure dispersion member. By increasing the contact area with the cared person, the body pressure is dispersed, and a large local force is not applied to the cared person's body.

Here, since the surface pressure dispersion member has the flexibility to change the shape according to the body shape of the cared person, the frictional force generated by the body pressure may be weakened.
By providing a surface pressure dispersion member on a receiving plate as described in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-305092) and simply placing the weight of the cared person on the surface pressure dispersion member, the body of the cared person It will be difficult to keep it stable. Therefore, it is preferable that anti-slip means is provided on the surface of the surface pressure dispersion member that is in contact with the body of the care recipient. As the anti-slip means, the surface may be processed into a rough surface, or an anti-slip film or the like may be attached.

  In the present invention, the body holder includes a plurality of movable plates connected via a rotation shaft, a drive motor provided on each of the rotation shafts for rotating the movable plate, and a body contacting side. A surface pressure measurement sensor for measuring a surface distribution of contact pressure generated by contact with a human body on the surface, and the control unit has a contact pressure from the body in a wide range based on a measurement result of the surface pressure measurement sensor. It is preferable to drive the plurality of movable plates as described above.

In such a configuration, the contact pressure generated by contact with the human body is measured by the surface pressure measurement sensor, and the position of the contact and the magnitude of the pressure are output to the control unit.
The control unit gives a drive command to the drive motor to rotate the movable plate. At this time, the contact area between the cared person's body and the body holder is increased by rotating the movable plate in a direction in contact with the cared person's body. Then, even if the cared person deposits his / her weight on the holder, the weight does not apply to one place and the surface pressure is dispersed over a wide range.
Therefore, stress such as a large force applied to a part of the cared person's body is eliminated, and the physical and mental burden in the transfer operation is reduced.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be illustrated and described with reference to reference numerals attached to respective elements in the drawings.
A first embodiment according to the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a side view of a transfer support apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
The transfer support apparatus 10 includes a carriage unit 1, a robot arm unit 2 connected to the carriage unit 1, and a holder 3 attached to the robot arm unit 2.

  The trolley unit 1 is attached to the back of the trolley body 11, the handle part 12 for pushing and moving the trolley part 1, a pair of left and right front auxiliary wheels 13 attached to the front of the trolley body 11, and the trolley body 11. The pair of left and right rear auxiliary wheels 14 and a pair of left and right drive wheels 15 that are attached to a substantially central portion of the carriage main body 11 and drive the carriage part 1 are provided. A pair of left and right sixth motors 16 for driving each drive wheel 15 are connected to the pair of left and right drive wheels 15, respectively.

The robot arm unit 2 is an articulated arm, and includes a first arm unit 21, a second arm unit 22, and a third arm unit 23. The first arm portion 21 is connected to the base portion 11a of the carriage main body 11 via the first joint portion 51 so as to be able to rotate around the yaw axis and the pitch axis. The second arm portion 22 is connected to the first arm portion 21 via the second joint portion 52 so as to be able to rotate around the pitch axis.
One end of the third arm portion 23 is connected to the second arm portion 22 via the third joint portion so as to be rotatable around the pitch axis. (In Fig. 1, the third joint is not shown because it is not visible on the back of the third arm)
An attachment portion 24 for attaching the holder 3 is connected to the other end of the third arm portion 23 via a fourth joint portion so that rotation around the roll axis is possible. (In Figure 1, the fourth joint is not shown because it is built in the third arm and cannot be seen.)
The attachment portion 24 has a well-known attachment structure (for example, a fastening structure using a bolt and a nut, a fitting structure) in which the holder 3 can be attached / detached.

Here, the yaw axis is a rotation axis of the first arm unit 21 and is a vertical axis.
The pitch axis is a rotation axis when the first arm portion 21, the second arm portion 22, and the third arm portion 23 are rotated in the vertical direction.
The roll axis is a rotation axis when the attachment portion 24 and the holder 3 are rotated with respect to the third arm portion 23, and corresponds to the axis of the third arm portion 23.

The base portion 11a of the carriage body 11 is provided with a first motor (driving means) 61 that rotationally drives the first arm portion 21 around the yaw axis.
The first joint portion 51 is provided with a second motor (drive means) 62 that rotationally drives the first arm portion 21 around the pitch axis.
The second joint portion 52 is provided with a third motor (driving means) 63 that rotationally drives the second arm portion 22 around the pitch axis.
The third joint portion is provided with a fourth motor (driving means) 64 that rotationally drives the third arm portion 23 around the pitch axis.
The fourth joint portion is provided with a fifth motor (driving means) 65 that rotationally drives the attachment portion 24 and the holder 3 around the roll axis.

  The first to sixth motors 61, 62, 63, 64, 65 are connected to the control unit 17 via the drive circuit 18 and are driven to rotate by a control signal from the control unit 17. Further, in the base portion 11a and each joint portion (51, 52), rotation sensors 71, 72, 73, such as potentiometers for detecting the rotational drive amount of the first to fifth motors 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 74 and 75 are provided, respectively. The rotation sensors 71, 72, 73, 74, 75 are connected to the control unit 17 and output the detected rotational drive amount to the control unit 17.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of the transfer support apparatus.
The carriage unit 1 is provided with a control unit 17 that controls the rotational drive of the first to sixth motors 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, and 16.
The control unit 17 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 17a that performs control processing, arithmetic processing, and the like, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 17b that stores control programs, arithmetic programs, and the like executed by the CPU 17a, processing data, and the like. The microcomputer mainly includes a RAM (Random Access Memory) 17c that temporarily stores data.

Further, the attachment part 24 of the robot arm part 2 is provided with an operation part 25 for the caregiver to operate the transfer support device 10, and the operation part 25 is attached to the attachment part of the robot arm part 2 via the force sensor 25c. 24. The force sensor 25c detects an operation according to the magnitude, direction, moment, etc. of the operation force applied to the operation unit 25 and outputs an operation signal to the control unit 17.
Based on the operation signal from the force sensor 25c and the rotational drive amount from the rotation sensors 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, the control unit 17 is based on the first to fifth motors 61, 62, 63, 64, Perform 65 feedback controls.
As a result, the caregiver can easily and accurately move the robot arm unit 2 of the transfer assist device 10 to a desired position.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the holder.
The holder 3 is attached to the attachment part 24 of the robot arm part 2.
The holder 3 includes a torso support portion 31 that holds the to-be-cared person's torso and a lower-limb support portion 32 that supports the lower-limb part of the to-be-cared person.

  The lower limb support part 32 is formed in a substantially inverted T shape and is connected to the lower part of the trunk support part 31. The torso support portion 31 and the lower limb support portion 32 are integrally formed, but may be formed separately.

  The torso support portion 31 includes a chest support portion 31a that abuts on the chest of the care recipient, a pair of side support portions 31b that support the side surfaces of the chest, a head support portion 31c that supports the jaws of the head, and a chest support. The surface pressure dispersion member 40 is provided on the surface of the part 31a and the side support part 31b that is in contact with the body of the care recipient.

  The pair of side surface support portions 31b are formed so as to face each other, and extend from both side edges of the chest support portion 31a in a substantially vertical direction. The head support portion 31c is formed in a convex shape on the upper portion of the chest support portion 31a. Note that the chest support part 31a, the side support part 31b, and the head support part 31c are integrally formed, but may be formed separately.

A surface pressure dispersion member 40 is provided on the surface of the chest support part 31a and the side support part 31b that comes into contact with the body of the care recipient.
The surface pressure dispersion member 40 is a member that is neither too hard nor too soft and has appropriate elasticity and viscosity, and disperses the pressure applied to a part thereof.
When the surface pressure dispersion member 40 comes into contact with the body of the cared person, the shape thereof is changed according to the body pressure applied from the body of the cared person and is deformed so that the contact area with the body of the cared person increases. .
The body pressure generated between the cared person and the surface pressure dispersing member 40 is dispersed, and a large pressure load is not locally generated on the cared person's body.

The surface pressure dispersion member 40 is in the form of a single sheet and is attached to one surface of the chest support portion 31a and the side surface support portion 31b.
The surface pressure dispersion member 40 may be made of a soft foam (foam material) made of foamed resin or the like, a non-woven fabric (felt) excellent in cushioning properties, or a soft material gel or sol. It may be a sealed fluid package.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a state where the care receiver is held by the holder 3. As shown in FIG.
The care recipient is held by the holder 3 in such a posture that the cared person is naturally held on the lower limb support portion 32 while being held by the holder 3 by simply putting both hands on the body support portion 31.
At this time, since the body pressure of the cared person is dispersed by the surface pressure dispersing member 40, no pressure is locally applied to only a part of the cared person's body. As a result, the holder 3 can be caught without feeling pain or stress.

Here, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the body of the care recipient has started to contact the holder 3.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a contact state between the holder 3 and the cared person when the cared person is caught by the holder 3.
As shown in FIG. 5, when the cared person's body approaches the body support portion 31 and the surface pressure dispersing member 40 and the cared person's body come into contact, the cared person's body changes to the surface pressure dispersing member 40. Contact pressure is applied. Then, the surface pressure dispersion member 40 changes its shape flexibly by the contact pressure.
The deformation of the surface pressure dispersion member 40 increases the contact area between the body of the care recipient and the surface pressure dispersion member 40 as shown in FIG. As a result, the body of the care recipient can be received by the large area of the surface pressure dispersion member 40. By increasing the contact area with the cared person, the body pressure is dispersed, and a large local force is not applied to the cared person's body.

Next, a transfer operation using the transfer support device 10 will be briefly described.
FIGS. 7 (a) to 7 (c) are diagrams showing an example of a transfer method for transferring a cared person sleeping on a bed to a wheelchair using the transfer support device.
First, the caregiver operates the operation unit 25 to bring the transfer support device 10 closer to the bed, and then approaches the torso of the cared person sitting on the end of the bed with the holder 3 of the robot arm unit 2. Let Then, the cared person is held in the holder (FIG. 7 (a)). Thereafter, the caregiver operates the operation unit 25 to lift the care receiver from the bed by the robot arm unit 2 and approach the wheelchair (FIG. 7 (b)).

At this time, the cared person N deposits his / her body weight in the holder 3, but since the surface pressure dispersion member 40 of the holder 3 disperses the body pressure of the cared person N, the cared person N is locally applied to the body. Can be comfortably held by the holder 3 without feeling a burden. Furthermore, the caregiver C operates the operation unit 25 to place the cared person N on the wheelchair, and finally removes the holder 3 from the cared person N (FIG. 7 (c)).
In this way, the caregiver C can easily transfer the care receiver N by operating the transfer support device 10.

(Second embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The basic configuration of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, but the second embodiment is characterized in that it is driven to positively change the shape of the holder according to the body pressure from the care recipient. Have
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of a holder in the second embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the holder.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a control system configuration according to the second embodiment.

In the second embodiment, the holder 100 is configured to be deformable by a plurality of rotating shafts, and includes a surface pressure measurement sensor 80 on the surface.
The torso support part 110 of the holder 100 has a chest support part 120 and side support parts 130, 130. The side support parts 130, 130 are attached to the chest support part 120 via rotating shafts 131, 132. Yes. Thereby, the side support parts 130 and 130 are closed or opened with respect to the chest support part 120. Further, the chest support part 120 is configured to include a central substrate 121 as a central part, and rotating plates 122 and 123 provided on both sides via rotating shafts 124 and 125, respectively. Yes.

Here, in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, the left rotation plate with respect to the central substrate 121 is the first rotation plate 122, and the right rotation plate is the second rotation plate 123.
Here, the central substrate 121, the first rotating plate 122, the second rotating plate 123, and the side surface support portions 130 and 130 are a plurality of movable plates connected via rotating shafts.
A motor that drives the rotation shaft 124 that connects the central substrate 121 and the first rotation plate 122 is a seventh motor 126, and the rotation shaft 125 that connects the central substrate 121 and the second rotation plate 123 is driven. The motor is an eighth motor 127.
The motor that drives the rotation shaft 131 that connects the first rotation plate 122 and the side support portion 130 is a ninth motor 133, and the rotation shaft that connects the second rotation plate 123 and the side support portion 130. A motor that drives 132 is referred to as a tenth motor 134.
These rotation shafts 124, 125, 131, 132 are provided with rotation sensors 76, 77, 78, 79, respectively, and output the detected rotation amounts to the control unit 17.

In the second embodiment, it is necessary that the head support portion 31c does not hinder the driving of the chest support portion 120.
For example, the head support portion 31c is made of a flexible material, or a notch is provided at a position corresponding to the rotation shafts 124 and 125 of the chest support portion 120.

The surface pressure measurement sensor 80 is provided on the surface of the surface pressure dispersion member 40.
As the surface pressure measuring sensor 80, a known sensor can be adopted as long as it can measure a two-dimensional pressure distribution.
However, since it is necessary to deform to some extent according to the cared person's body shape together with the surface pressure dispersion member 40, it is preferable that the surface pressure measurement sensor 80 has a sheet shape. It is preferable that it is made of a material having a property.
Alternatively, a plurality of pressure sensors may be provided on the surface of the surface pressure dispersion member 40 on the lattice.

A pressure measurement result from the surface pressure measurement sensor 80 is input to the control unit 17 at a predetermined sampling timing, and the control unit 17 performs seventh to tenth motors 126, 127, 133, and 134 according to the pressure measurement result. Control the drive.
At this time, the control unit 17 drives the motor so that the contact pressure between the surface pressure measurement sensor 80 and the care recipient N does not become a locally high pressure, and a uniform pressure is applied over a wide range.

The operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the body of the care recipient N starts to contact the holder 100. FIG.
As shown in FIG. 11, in the stage where the body of the cared person N starts to contact the holder 100, the contact area between the holder 100 and the cared person N is narrow, and pressure is applied only to this narrow contact range. become.
The contact pressure at this time is measured by the surface pressure measurement sensor 80, and the position of the contact portion and the magnitude of the pressure are output to the control portion 17.
When the contact pressure in the range corresponding to the central substrate 121 is locally increased, the control unit 17 gives a drive command to the seventh and eighth motors 126 and 127 to rotate the rotating plates 122 and 123. . As described above, the contact area between the body of the care receiver N and the holder 100 is increased by rotating the rotation plates 122 and 123 in the direction in which the rotation plates 122 and 123 come into contact with the body of the care receiver.

Furthermore, when the contact pressure in the range corresponding to the central substrate 121 and the rotating plates 122 and 123 is large and the contact pressure in the range corresponding to the side support portions 130 and 130 is small, the ninth and tenth motors 133 and 134 are used. The side support portions 130 and 130 are rotated in a direction in contact with the cared person's body.
Then, as shown in FIG. 12, the cared person N's body is received over a wide area.

  Thus, when the holder 100 is driven so as to change its shape in accordance with the body shape of the cared person N, the contact area between the holder 100 and the body of the cared person N increases. Then, even if the cared person N deposits his / her weight on the holder 100 and leans, the weight is not applied to one place, and the surface pressure is dispersed in a wide range. Therefore, stress such as a large force applied to a part of the body of the cared person N is eliminated, and the physical and mental burden in the transfer operation is reduced.

In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, The deformation | transformation in the range which can achieve the objective of this invention, improvement, etc. are included in this invention.
In the above embodiment, the surface pressure dispersion member 40 has a single sheet shape. However, in order to make the surface pressure dispersion member 40 more easily deformed, for example, as shown in FIG. 41 may be provided, and the surface pressure dispersion member may be divided into a plurality of 40a to 40h as shown in FIG.
Furthermore, a surface pressure measurement sensor may be provided on the surface of the modified example of the surface pressure dispersion member shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, and the body support portion may be rotatable about a rotation shaft.

As the configuration of the holder, a configuration having a head support portion and a lower limb support portion has been illustrated, but a holder having only the trunk support portion 110 without the head support portion and the lower limb support portion may be used.
Moreover, although the case where the surface pressure dispersion | distribution member was arrange | positioned on the surface of the trunk | body support part was illustrated, you may arrange | position a surface pressure dispersion | distribution member also to a leg support part and a head support part.

The side view of the transfer assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a transfer assistance device in the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a holder in the first embodiment. The figure which shows the state which hold | maintained the care receiver in the holder in 1st Embodiment. The figure which shows the state which the cared person's body began to contact a holder in 1st Embodiment. The figure which shows the contact state of a holder and a cared person when a cared person is caught by the holder in 1st Embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the transfer method which transfers the care receiver who is sleeping on the bed to a wheelchair using the transfer assistance apparatus in 1st Embodiment. The figure which shows the structure of the holder in 2nd Embodiment. Sectional drawing of the holder in 2nd Embodiment. The block diagram which shows the control system structure of 2nd Embodiment. The figure which shows the state which a cared person's body begins to contact a holder. The figure which shows the state which received the cared person's body with the holder. The figure which shows the modification of this invention. The figure which shows the modification of this invention. The figure which shows typically the state which entrusted the cared person's weight to the conventional receiving plate (holding tool).

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Carriage part, 2 ... Robot arm part, 3 ... Holder, 10 ... Transfer support device, 11 ... Carriage body, 11a ... Base part, 12 ... Handle part, 13 ... Front auxiliary wheel, 14 ... Back auxiliary wheel, 15 ... driving wheel, 16 ... sixth motor, 17 ... control unit, 18 ... drive circuit, 21 ... first arm unit, 22 ... second arm unit, 23 ... third arm unit, 24 ... mounting unit, 25 ... operation unit , 25c ... Force sensor, 25 ... Operation part, 31 ... Torso support part, 31a ... Chest support part, 31b ... Side support part, 31c ... Head support part, 32 ... Lower limb support part, 40 ... Contact pressure dispersion member, 41 ... Hole, 51 ... First joint part, 52 ... Second joint part, 61 ... First motor, 71-79 ... Rotation sensor, 80 ... Surface pressure measurement sensor, 100 ... Holding tool, 110 ... Body support part, 120 ... Chest support part, 121 ... central substrate, 122 ... first rotating plate, 123 ... second rotating plate, 124 ... rotating shaft, 125 ... rotating shaft, 126 ... seventh motor, 127 ... eighth motor, 130 ... Side support part, 131 ... Rotating shaft, 132 ... Rotating shaft, 133, ninth motor, 134, tenth motor, 200, receiving plate.

Claims (2)

A movable carriage section;
An arm part capable of horizontal rotation and tilting and having a base end attached to the carriage part;
A body holder attached to the arm part;
Drive means for driving the arm part;
A control unit for driving and controlling the driving means,
The said body holding tool is provided with the surface pressure dispersion | distribution member which disperse | distributes the contact pressure produced by contact with a human body in the surface at the side which contacts a human body. The transfer assistance apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. In the transfer support device according to claim 1,
The body holder includes a plurality of movable plates connected via a rotation shaft, a drive motor provided on each of the rotation shafts to rotate the movable plate, and a human body on a surface in contact with the human body. A surface pressure measurement sensor for measuring a surface distribution of contact pressure generated by the contact of
The control unit drives the plurality of movable plates so that the contact pressure from the body is applied over a wide range based on the measurement result of the surface pressure measurement sensor.

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