JP5659349B2 - Tensile deformation detection cloth - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a tensile deformation detection cloth used in a system for detecting body behavior of a handicapped person or a humanoid robot, for example.

As a system for detecting physical behaviors of persons with disabilities, humanoid robots, etc., there is a motion capture system that captures body movements with a CCD camera and converts them into data. However, this system is large and expensive.
As an inexpensive detection system, the one disclosed in Patent Document 1 below has been proposed. In the technique of Patent Document 1, a knitted fabric or a woven fabric made of a blended yarn in which conductive fibers and non-conductive fibers are mixed is attached to an object to be detected. This is detected as a change in resistance.

Japanese Patent No. 378951

However, since the detection system of Patent Document 1 detects a change in electrical resistance, it is necessary to pass a current through a conductive fiber for detection, and there is a problem that power consumption as the detection system increases. is there. When the system for detecting body behavior is attached to the body of a disabled person or the like, it is desirable that the power source of the detection system is as low as possible because the battery is more convenient.
In view of such a problem, an object of the present invention is to suppress power consumption as a detection system by detecting expansion and contraction of a knitted fabric or a woven fabric as a change in capacitance.

The first invention of the present invention makes a knitted or woven fabric comprising a plurality of conductive yarns stretchable in one direction, and the spacing between adjacent ones of the conductive yarns changes along with the expansion and contraction. Tensile deformation characterized in that insulation between the adjacent conductive yarns is maintained, and ends of each adjacent conductive yarn are a pair of electrodes for measuring capacitance It is a detection cloth.
According to the first invention, since the expansion and contraction of the knitted fabric or the woven fabric is detected as an electrostatic capacity, no current flows even when a voltage is applied to the conductive yarn, and the power consumption in this part can be zero. The power consumption of the entire detection system can be suppressed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a woven fabric in which conductive yarns and elastic yarns are woven as warps and wefts, respectively, is made stretchable by stretching and contracting the elastic yarns in the direction of the wefts. The interval between adjacent ones is changed, and an insulation state is maintained between the adjacent conductive yarns. A pair of electrodes for measuring the capacitance of the end portions of the adjacent conductive yarns This is a tensile deformation detecting cloth.
According to the second invention, the power-saving type tensile deformation detecting cloth can be realized by the woven fabric.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a conductive yarn obtained by knitting a knitted fabric knitted using a plurality of conductive yarns comprising a core containing conductive fibers and a sheath covering the core with insulating fibers. The tensile deformation detecting cloth is characterized in that a direction connecting both ends of the wire is an expansion / contraction direction, and an end of each conductive yarn is a pair of electrodes for measuring capacitance.
According to the third aspect of the invention, the power-saving type tensile deformation detection cloth can be realized by the knitted fabric.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the tensile deformation detecting cloth according to the third aspect of the invention, wherein the tensile deformation detecting cloth is characterized in that the insulating yarn is sandwiched between the conductive yarns that are knitted together. is there.
According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the power-saving tensile deformation detection cloth can be realized by the knitted fabric, and the insulating yarn is sandwiched between the conductive yarn forming the capacitor and the capacitance changes due to expansion and contraction. It can be increased to increase sensitivity.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the tensile deformation detecting cloth according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the conductive yarn is a filament yarn.
According to the fifth invention, when the blended yarn is used as the conductive yarn as in Patent Document 1, the detection characteristics may vary depending on the deformed portion due to blending unevenness, but in the case of the filament yarn, it is a continuous fiber. Therefore, occurrence of unevenness due to the deformed portion can be prevented.

It is explanatory drawing of 1st Embodiment of the tensile deformation | transformation detection cloth which concerns on this invention. It is a characteristic view in a 1st embodiment. It is an electric circuit block diagram of the detection system using a 1st embodiment. It is a time chart which shows the example of an output of the detection system of FIG. It is explanatory drawing explaining the example of a motion detection of the person's arm by the detection system of FIG. It is a photograph of a 1st embodiment. It is the photograph of the expansion | extension state of 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining the function of 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining the function of the expansion | extension state of 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining 2nd Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining 3rd Embodiment. Explanatory drawing explaining the expansion | extension state of 2nd and 3rd embodiment It is explanatory drawing explaining 4th Embodiment.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows the first embodiment, and is a case where the tensile deformation detection cloth is made of a woven fabric. In the woven fabric 10, conductive yarns 11 are woven into warps (warp yarns) and elastic yarns (not shown) are woven into weft yarns (wefts). Every other conductive yarn 11 is connected to another electrode, and even rows of conductive yarns 11 is connected to the electrode A13, and the odd-numbered conductive yarns 11 are connected to the electrode B14.
The conductive yarn 11 is a two-layer structured yarn having a thickness equivalent to the common formula count 1/7. For example, a covering yarn having the following structure is conceivable.
Core: Silber Fiber (registered trademark) manufactured by Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (polyester / silver plated yarn, thickness: 167 dTex) (corresponding to the filament yarn in the present invention)
Inner layer sheath: Polyester yarn (Thickness: 330dTex)
Outer layer sheath: Cotton twisted yarn (thickness: 20/1, twisting method: S476 t / m)
In addition to this, the core yarn of the conductive yarn 11 includes Sanderlon (registered trademark) manufactured by Nippon Kashiwa Dyeing Co., Ltd., Kurabobo (registered trademark) manufactured by Kuraray Trading Co., Ltd. Fiber etc. can be used.
The elastic yarn (stretch yarn) is a composite yarn having a thickness equivalent to cotton count 40/2. For example, the following configuration is conceivable.
Thread 1: Elastic fiber (Lycra (registered trademark) manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc., thickness: 33 dTex)
Thread 2: Cotton (thickness: cotton count 40/1) 2 Twisting condition: S twist 850 t / m, feed ratio: 2.7
As the elastic yarn, Roika (registered trademark) manufactured by Asahi Kasei Fibers Co., Ltd. can be used.
Further, the electrode A13 and the electrode B14 are plain-woven using the same polyester / silver plating yarn (thickness: 167 dTex) as the core of the conductive yarn 11 at the end of the conductive yarn 11 extending from the fabric 10, and on the surface thereof. A conductive adhesive is applied and configured. At this time, the electrode A13 and the electrode B14 are formed so that the length when the fabric 10 is fully extended and the lengths of the electrode A13 and the electrode B14 are substantially equal so as not to prevent the fabric 10 from expanding and contracting in the weft direction. When 10 contracts, electrode A13 and electrode B14 are contracted with folds.

  A photograph of the tensile deformation detection cloth of the first embodiment is shown in FIGS. FIG. 6 shows a case where the tensile deformation detection cloth is in a contracted state. In the photograph, W indicates the dimension in the warp direction, and L indicates the dimension in the weft direction. FIG. 7 shows a case where the tensile deformation detection cloth is in an extended state, and shows a state in which the tensile deformation detection cloth extends in the direction of the weft and has a dimension of L + ΔL. The woven fabric of this embodiment is a plain weave in which the density of the conductive yarn 11 is 12 / cm and the density of the elastic yarn is 29 / cm.

8 and 9 illustrate the electrical characteristics in the state where the tensile deformation detection cloth of the first embodiment is contracted as shown in FIG. 6 and the state where it is extended as shown in FIG. In FIG. 8, D indicates the distance between the adjacent conductive yarns 11 when the tensile deformation detection cloth is in the contracted state, and in FIG. 9, D + ΔD is adjacent to each other when the tensile deformation detection cloth is in the extended state. The interval between the conductive yarns 11 is shown. Here, it is shown that the distance between the conductive yarns 11 increases from D to D + ΔD when the tensile deformation detection cloth is stretched.
The capacitance Cp of the parallel line of unit length generally has the relationship of the following formula 1.

However, D: Distance between the conductive yarns 11 a: Radius of the conductive yarns 11 ε ₀ : Dielectric constant of the dielectric material The electrostatic capacity C of the entire woven fabric is considered that the capacitors are connected to the parallel conductive yarns 11 in parallel. When the total number of capacitors is Mc and the width of the fabric is W, the following formula 2 is obtained.

When the interval between the conductive yarns 11 changes, the capacitance between the electrode A13 and the electrode B14 changes according to Equation 2, and FIG. When the tensile force is not applied to the tensile deformation detection cloth and the elongation is 0%, the capacitance is about 72 pF, and the capacitance decreases as the tensile force is applied, and the elongation is 70%. When the tensile force is removed after that, the capacitance changes with substantially the same locus as the change in capacitance when the tensile force is applied.

FIG. 3 shows a detection system for detecting the movement of the elbow of the human arm, and the tensile deformation detection cloths 10A to 10D are attached to the outer sides of the left and right elbows of two persons, and the respective tensile deformation detection cloths 10A. 10D electrodes A13 and B14 are connected to the scanner 21, and the tensile deformation detection cloths 10A to 10D are sequentially connected to the capacitance meter 22 via the scanner 21. When each of the tensile deformation detection cloths 10A to 10D is attached to the elbow, the tensile deformation detection cloths 10A to 10D can be attached to the supporter by sewing the fabric 10 to the supporter. The scanner 21 functions as a multiplexer.
The capacitance detected by the capacitance meter 22 is transferred by the wireless data transfer device 23 to the wireless data transfer device 24 that can communicate via the wireless LAN. The tensile deformation detection cloths 10A to 10D, the scanner 21, the capacitance meter 22, and the wireless data transfer device 23 are attached to the human body, and the wireless data transfer device 24 is on the fixed side and is a monitoring device (not shown). It is connected to the.
According to this detection system 20, the movement of the human elbow can be detected as a change in capacitance, and the movement of the human elbow can be monitored by the monitoring device.

An example of the capacitance data detected in this way is shown in FIG. This data has high frequency components removed by the moving average method. In FIG. 4, the time zone when the capacitance is high is when the elbow is stretched and the tensile deformation detection cloth is contracted, and the time zone when the capacitance is low is when the elbow is bent. This is when the tensile deformation detecting cloth is stretched.
Further, FIG. 5 shows the average value of the capacitance when the arm is bent with the tensile deformation detection cloth attached to the elbow as described in FIG. Here, the operation steps 1, 3, 5, and 7 show the state where both arms are extended, the operation steps 2 and 4 show the state where the left arm is bent, and the operation steps 6 and 8 show the state where the right arm is bent, respectively. Yes. In the figure, white circles indicate data corresponding to the left arm, and black circles indicate data corresponding to the right arm.
As is clear from this figure, the movement of the human elbow can be clearly detected by the capacitance data obtained from the tensile deformation detection cloth.

FIG. 10 shows a second embodiment. In this case, a tensile deformation detecting cloth is constituted by a knitted fabric obtained by knitting conductive yarns. The plurality of conductive yarns 15a and 15b woven together are connected to the electrodes A17 and B18 every other line, and the capacitance between the electrodes A17 and B18 is detected. It is necessary to maintain an insulating state between the electrodes A17 and B18, and the conductive yarns 15a and 15b have a two-layer structure yarn similar to the conductive yarn 11 of the first embodiment. That is, the conductive yarns 15a and 15b have a core-sheath structure, the core has conductivity, and the sheath has insulation.
When the tensile deformation detection cloth constituted by such a knitted fabric is pulled in the direction connecting both ends of the conductive yarn 15a, that is, in the left-right direction in FIG. 10, the knitted fabric is stretched as shown in FIG. 12, and the conductive yarn connected to separate electrodes. The interval between 15a and 15b is substantially reduced, and the capacitance between both electrodes A17 and B18 is increased. As described above, the tensile deformation detection cloth made of a knitted fabric increases in electrostatic capacity when stretched. Therefore, the relationship between the elongation and the electrostatic capacity of the tensile deformation detection cloth in FIG. 2 in the first embodiment is opposite. It becomes. Therefore, when detecting the deformation of the detection object using the tensile deformation detection cloth by the knitted fabric, it is configured to detect that the deformation has increased when the detected capacitance increases.

FIG. 11 shows a third embodiment, and a tensile deformation detection cloth is constituted by a knitted fabric knitted in a tenter with an insulating yarn 16 interposed between a plurality of conductive yarns 15. In the case of the second embodiment, the conductive yarns 15a and 15b are knitted in a tentacle, whereas in the third embodiment, the conductive yarns 15 are not directly in contact with each other. In this case, the conductive yarns 15 arranged on both sides of the insulating yarn 16 are connected to different electrodes to form a tensile deformation detection cloth, thereby forming the electrostatic capacitance of the capacitor formed between the conductive yarns 15. There is an advantage that the capacity is increased and the detection sensitivity is improved.
In the third embodiment, other configurations are the same as those in the second embodiment, and the usage as a tensile deformation detection cloth is the same as in the second embodiment.

FIG. 13 shows a fourth embodiment, which is configured by connecting a plurality of tensile deformation detection cloths shown in the first embodiment, and the difference in deformation amount depending on the part of the detection object. Can be detected separately. The fabrics 10a and 10b are the same as the fabric 10 of the first embodiment, and the fabrics 10a and 10b are connected by a connecting fabric 10c. The connecting fabric 10c is composed of an insulating yarn as a warp, and an elastic yarn in which the weft of the fabrics 10a and 10b is extended as it is. As described in the first embodiment, the conductive yarns of the fabrics 10a and 10b are connected to the electrodes 13a, 14a, 13b, and 14b.
The tensile deformation detection cloth configured in this manner is attached to a detection object having a relatively large area, and the capacitance is detected as described above, and is detected between the electrodes 13a and 14a based on the deformation of the fabric 10a. By comparing the capacitance and the capacitance detected between the electrodes 13b and 14b based on the deformation of the fabric 10b, it is possible to detect the difference in deformation of the portion where the fabrics 10a and 10b are mounted. it can.

According to each of the embodiments described above, since it is composed of a simple woven fabric or knitted fabric, the fabric thickness is thin, and even when worn on a human body, it is easily deformed according to the shape of the wearing portion, and is easy to wear. Therefore, a feeling of wearing becomes good. Since the detection of the deformation of the detection target is performed by a change in capacitance, it is not necessary to pass a current through the detection unit, and the entire detection system can be made a power saving type. When the amount of tensile deformation detection cloth is large in the detection system, the power saving effect is particularly remarkable.
The detection system using the tensile deformation detection cloth of the present invention can be used in the following cases.
(1) System for checking momentum and recovery level in rehabilitation of physically handicapped persons (2) Monitoring of moving parts with complicated curved surface shape (3) Input device for home game machine (4) Due to weak earthquake Deformation detection of buildings and deflection due to strong winds of a greenhouse

  The present invention is not limited to the appearance and configuration described in the above embodiment, and various modifications, additions, and deletions can be made without changing the gist of the present invention. For example, the weaving method of the woven fabric and the knitting method of the knitted fabric are not limited to those described in the embodiment, and various weaving methods and knitting methods can be adopted.

10, 10a, 10b Woven fabric 11, 15, 15a, 15b Conductive thread 16 Insulating thread 13, 17 Electrode A
14,18 Electrode B
20 Detection system

Claims (5)

  While making a knitted fabric or a woven fabric including a plurality of conductive yarns stretchable in one direction, the spacing between the adjacent conductive yarns changes with the expansion and contraction, and between the adjacent conductive yarns. A tensile deformation detecting cloth configured to maintain an insulating state, and an end portion of each adjacent conductive yarn is a pair of electrodes for measuring capacitance.   The woven fabric in which conductive and elastic yarns are woven as warps and wefts, respectively, can be expanded and contracted by expanding and contracting the elastic yarn in the direction of the weft, and the distance between adjacent conductive yarns changes with the expansion and contraction. The adjacent conductive yarns are maintained in an insulated state, and the ends of the adjacent conductive yarns are a pair of electrodes for measuring capacitance. Tensile deformation detection cloth.   A direction in which the ends of the knitted conductive yarn are connected to each other is formed by stretching a knitted fabric using a plurality of conductive yarns composed of a core containing conductive fibers and a sheath covering the core with insulating fibers. A tensile deformation detecting cloth, wherein the ends of each conductive yarn are a pair of electrodes for measuring capacitance.   4. The tensile deformation detecting cloth according to claim 3, wherein the tensile deformation detecting cloth is knitted with an insulating yarn between conductive yarns knitted together. 5. The tensile deformation detection cloth according to claim 1, wherein the conductive yarn is a filament yarn.