KR100651639B1 - Foot pressure sensor of robot for assistant exoskeletal power - Google Patents

Abstract

A foot pressure sensor for a robot for assistant exoskeletal power is provided to be installed on a frame of a sole operating device of a robot to detect whether a user's sole comes into contact with the ground when walking. A foot pressure sensor for a robot for assistant exoskeletal power includes a foothold(16), an air tube(12), an upper silicone pad(14a), a lower silicone pad(14b) and a discharge tube of an air tube(18). The foothold has mounting tools(20) in the front and rear sides of a sole of a foot. The air tube(12) is wound in the shape of a concentric circle and is placed on the mounting tool(20) of the foothold. The upper and lower silicone pads(14) are attached to the upper surface and bottom surface of the foothold(16) on which the air tube is placed. The discharge tube(18) is extracted to one end of the silicone pad.

Description

Foot pressure sensor of robot for assistant exoskeletal power

1a and 1b is an exploded and assembled perspective view showing an embodiment of the sole pressure sensor of the intelligent muscle and walking aid robot according to the present invention,

2a and 2b is an exploded and assembled perspective view showing another embodiment of the sole pressure sensor of the intelligent muscle and walking aid robot according to the present invention,

3a and 3b is a perspective view showing an intelligent muscle strength and walking aid robot to which the sole pressure sensor of the present invention is applied,

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the operation of the sole pressure sensor according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings>

10: sole pressure sensor 12: air tube

14: silicon pad 14a: upper silicon pad

14b: Lower silicon pad 16: Scaffold

18: discharge pipe 20: mounting hole

22: acrylic plate

100: caster walker 102: main body

104: traveling body 106: liquid crystal display

108: computer 200: wearing robot

202: waist operating mechanism 204: hip joint portion

206: thigh actuator 208: knee joint portion

210: waist brace 212: thigh brace

214: calf brace 216: calf operating mechanism

218: ankle and sole operating mechanism 220: ankle connection bar

222: pneumatic sensor 224: shoes

226 frame 300: power train

304: motor

The present invention relates to a foot pressure sensor of an intelligent muscle strength and gait assist robot, a wearable robot that can be easily worn and removed by a user, and a power transmission device for transmitting power for movement to the wearable robot. And, in the intelligent muscle and walking assistance robot composed of a caster walker, a kind of walking aid including the power transmission device, the foot of the user is attached to the inside of the shoe of the robot's ankle and sole actuating mechanism It relates to an intelligent muscle strength and foot pressure sensor of a walking aid robot that can detect whether it has touched or dropped the ground.

In general, an exoskeletal strength aid refers to a robot that is a type of robot using a synchronization between a human and a robot, and such an exoskeletal strength aid is a rehabilitation aid for a patient with muscle disease, and recently, a muscle support role for an elderly person and a disabled person and a military for a heavy military It is applied as a strength amplifier.

The biggest issue in the study of exoskeleton muscle braces is how much power it can support.However, in the actual application of exoskeleton braces, how much comfortable fit is given to the elderly or patients who need exoskeleton braces because their lower limb muscle strength decreases? Will be more important.

Currently developed exoskeleton braces have some problems.

First, since a driving means such as a servo motor is included in the part worn by the user, the weight is increased and the volume becomes large, which makes it difficult to actually wear and use.

That is, when the exoskeleton muscle brace worn by the user is heavy and bulky, there is a problem that the wear itself is difficult for a person whose muscle strength is greatly reduced, such as an elderly person or a patient.

Since the user wears the exoskeleton aid in a state in which the driving means is turned off, it is difficult to wear when the weight goes out a lot, and even when wearing diarrhea, the user feels uncomfortable to walk or to operate due to the weight of the heavy weight.

In addition, when the volume of the exoskeleton assistive device is large, there is a problem that the operation itself, such as passing or sitting down a narrow place (for example, a toilet, an armrest chair, etc.) is impossible due to interference of surrounding objects.

Second, there is a disadvantage in that a sensor for detecting a user's desired motion must be directly attached to the user's body.

In other words, the conventional sensor is a muscle strengthening sensor or electromyography (EMG) sensor using the characteristics that the muscle is rigid, must be attached directly to the body, there is a disadvantage that the cost is expensive because it uses a load cell.

In addition, the behavior prediction method using the electromyography (EMG) sensor showed a good performance, but there is an inconvenience of attaching the sensor directly to the body, and it is difficult to find the exact position when the sensor is not an expert. have.

As such, the conventional EMG sensor has to undergo complex filtering, attach the sensor directly to the skin, and tend to differ according to the individual. Therefore, there are problems such as different values.

Third, when walking while the user wears the wearable robot, the user's sole should touch the ground or fall to detect the user's walking, etc., so that the user's foot touches the ground. Or means for detecting whether there is a problem that is expensive or inconvenience to the user's feet.

That is, an on / off switch is attached to the midsole of a shoe, among the existing means of detecting whether the sole of the user touches or falls off the ground, and the on / off switch is used for walking by the user. In this case, the on or off signal is transmitted to the control unit to detect whether the user's sole is in contact with the ground or falls, but there is a problem of damage due to the pressure of the sole when walking and the durability is inferior.

It also uses the well-known Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) sensor, which is a well-known method of detecting whether the user's sole touches or falls off the ground. This FSR sensor is a tactile sensor. Since it can be seen as a predetermined area rather than a point, it is difficult to derive an accurate detection.

The present invention is to provide a sole pressure sensor having a new structure in view of the above problems, the user is wearing and taken off and worn in the midsole of the shoe during the configuration of the wearing robot, the ground of the sole when the user walks An object of the present invention is to provide an intelligent muscle strength and foot pressure sensor of a walking aid robot that can easily detect whether it touches or falls.

The present invention for achieving the above object and the footrest having a mounting hole in the front and rear; An air tube rolled up in a concentric manner so as to be pressed by the front and rear of the sole and seated on the mounting hole of the footrest; Upper and lower silicon pads attached to upper and lower surfaces of the scaffold on which the air tubes are seated; A discharge tube of the air tube drawn out to one end of the silicon pad; A foot pressure sensor of an intelligent muscle strength and walking assistance robot, which is mounted on a frame of a foot operating mechanism of a robot worn by a user, is provided.

As a preferred embodiment, it is characterized in that the acryl plate that can be pressed to the upper surface of the air tube mounting hole of the scaffold without pressure gradient.

In a more preferred embodiment, the discharge tube of the air tube is connected to a pneumatic sensor that detects the pressure change of the air tube and at the same time receives the pressure change in units of voltage, the output terminal of the pneumatic sensor of the intelligent muscle and walking assistance robot It is characterized in that the wired connection with the control computer.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, the intelligent muscle strength and walking aid robot in which the sensor according to the present invention is used will be described.

3A and 3B are perspective views illustrating an intelligent muscle power and walking assistance robot to which the thigh pressure sensor of the present invention is applied.

Intelligent muscle strength and walking aid robot that can be usefully applied to the foot pressure sensor of the present invention is largely composed of caster walker 100, a removable wearable robot 200, a power transmission device 300 and the like.

The removable wearable robot 200 includes a plurality of braces actually worn or removed on a user's body (waist, thigh, calf, etc.), muscle strength and walking aids coupled to each brace so as to be interlocked with each other, and the strength and walking aids. It is mounted to a predetermined position of the configured to include a plurality of sensors and the like to detect the operating state of the person.

The caster walker 100 is a walking aid for balancing the user's hand or arm to load the body load of the user, the information display liquid crystal display 106 is attached to the upper surface and the main body 102 ), A traveling motor, and a cloudable wheel are mounted on the bottom thereof, and a traveling body 104 having a computer 108 therein is configured.

In addition, the power transmission device 300 is a front end rotatably mounted on both sides of the main body 102 of the caster walker 100, the rear end is a portion that is connected to transmit the power to the wearable robot 200, The motor 304 is internally installed as a driving means for the movement of the robot 200 to be worn.

More specifically, the muscle strength and walking aid mechanism of the wearable robot 200 is coupled to the waist brace 210 of the user and at the same time coupled to the removable block of the power transmission device 300 is a waist actuating mechanism connected to the power transmission. 202; A hip joint part 204 connected to the waist operating mechanism 202 to allow bending between the hip and the thigh; A thigh operation mechanism 206 connected to the hip joint part 204 and coupled to the thigh brace 212 while supporting the thigh along its longitudinal direction; A knee joint portion 208 connected to the lower end of the thigh actuating mechanism 206 to allow bending of the knee; A calf actuating mechanism 216 connected to the knee joint portion 208 and coupled to the calf brace 214 while supporting the calf along its longitudinal direction; The calf actuating mechanism 216 may be configured to be an ankle and sole actuating mechanism 218 to enable movement and stepping of the ankle joint.

In particular, the ankle and sole actuating mechanism 218 is an ankle connecting bar 220 rotatably coupled to the calf actuating mechanism, the upper end is connected to the ankle connecting bar and the lower end to support the bottom of the user's shoes 224 A vertically bent type frame 226, a potentiometer inherent in the central axis of rotation of the ankle connection bar 220, and mounted on the frame 226 on which the shoe is mounted and attached to the calf actuator. The sole pressure sensor 10 of the present invention transmits a pressure signal to the pneumatic sensor 222.

Therefore, the user (such as the elderly or the patient with weak muscles) wearing a waist brace 210 on the waist, thigh brace 212 on the thigh, and wearing a calf brace 214 on the calf As the shoe is worn, the user's shoe 224 is placed on the sole pressure sensor 10 attached to the frame 226 of the sole actuating mechanism 218.

Sole pressure sensor 10 according to the present invention is mounted in the shoe of the ankle and sole actuating mechanism, when the user wants to take the action of sitting, standing, walking, etc., the change in pressure whether or not the sole touches the ground or dropped Will be detected.

That is, when the user wants to take a desired action, ie, walking, sitting, standing, or the like, the user's soles are sensed and analyzed by touching or falling on the ground, and the sensed signal is analyzed by the caster worker 100. It is transmitted as a parameter to the computer 108, the computer 108 is utilized to arithmetic control the motor output value of the power transmission device 300 to move the robot 200 to wear according to the user's desired operation.

Here, looking at the configuration of the sole pressure sensor according to the present invention.

1A and 1B are an exploded and assembled perspective view showing an embodiment of the sole pressure sensor of an intelligent muscle power and walking aid robot according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2A and 2B are intelligent muscle power and walking aid according to the present invention. Separation and assembly perspective view showing another embodiment of the sole pressure sensor of the robot.

In one embodiment, the sole pressure sensor 10 of the present invention is mounted on the frame 226 of the sole actuating mechanism 218 of the wearing robot 200, the air tube 12 and the air tube ( It consists of the footrest 16, the silicon pad 14, etc. which 12 is seated.

That is, the air tube 12 is provided in a concentric circular shape rolled several times, the footrest 16 is provided with a structure in which the mounting hole 20 is seated in the front and rear air tube 12, The silicon pad 14 includes an upper silicon pad 14a and a lower silicon pad 14b attached to upper and lower surfaces of the scaffold 16 on which the air tube 12 is seated.

The upper and lower silicon pads 14a and 14b cover the air tube 12, and the edges thereof are attached to the edges of the scaffold 16 with adhesive or the like.

In addition, the discharge pipe 18 of the air tube 12 is extended to one end of the silicon pad 14.

Thus, the front of the air tube 12 seated in the mounting hole 20 of the footrest 16 is pressed by the front foot of the foot of the user, the rear of the foot is pressed by the rear foot of the sole.

The discharge tube 18 of the air tube 12 is connected to the pneumatic sensor 222 attached to the calf actuating mechanism 216 connected to the ankle and sole actuating mechanism 218, the pneumatic sensor 222 At the same time detects the pressure change of the air tube 12 and receives the pressure change in voltage units, and the output terminal of the pneumatic sensor 222 is built in the caster walker 100 of the intelligent muscle and walking assistance robot The control computer 108 is connected by wire for signal exchange.

In another embodiment, the sole pressure sensor 10 of the present invention is an acrylic plate 22 that can press the upper surface of the air tube 12 to the air tube mounting hole 20 of the foot plate 16 without a pressure gradient It is characterized in that the more attached, due to the problem that the pressure gradient occurs in the pressure sensing portion can be derived from the accurate sole pressure value by using the acrylic plate 22 attached.

Here, the sensing operation for the sole sensor of the present invention having the above structure will be described.

When the user wants to take an action such as walking, the heel of the sole touches the ground and the front sole touches the ground in succession, which is detected by the sole pressure sensor 10.

The pressure change detected by the sole pressure sensor 10 is transmitted to the pneumatic sensor 222 through the discharge pipe 18 of the air tube 12, the pneumatic sensor 222 of the air tube 12 The pressure change is input in voltage units.

Subsequently, at the output of the pneumatic sensor 222, the detection signal is input to the DAQ board of the control computer 108 of the intelligent muscle and walking assistance robot, and the computer 108 based on the detection signal of the pneumatic sensor 222. The drive signal is sent to the power train 200.

At this time, the input to the DAQ board can detect the situation of the wearer through the fuzzy control (fuzzy control) and can transmit the appropriate power, but by attaching an analog circuit to the signal itself can be used to control the signal itself, the actual pneumatic Since the signal from the sensor requires little noise filtering, it can also be controlled using SOC technology.

The thigh pressure sensor (not shown) as well as the sensing operation of the sole sensor 10, which is installed in the user's shoe 224 and detects the pressure change when the front and rear parts of the sole touches or falls to the ground, Detection of changes in the thigh muscle, potentiometer for measuring the bending angle of the hip joint portion (204: hip joint), potentiometer for measuring the bending angle of the knee joint portion (208: knee joint), potentiometer for measuring the angle of the ankle joint The detection signal is comprehensively determined, and the driving signal is transmitted from the computer 108 to the power transmission device 300.

In addition, the sole pressure sensor not only acts as an on / off switch for determining whether the front and rear of the sole of the foot is in contact with the ground, but also finely because it is not saturation when the ground and the sole are in contact with the ground. The presence of the sole raises the body's ability to detect when the sole is still or willing to touch the ground when the pressure changes (suddenly decreases or increases).

At this time, when the user walks in a standing posture, the sole pressure sensor 10 of the present invention easily detects whether the sole touches or falls on the ground and acts as one parameter for the desired operation of the user. .

That is, Figure 4 is a view showing how the actual sole acts on the sole pressure sensor of the present invention, the sole just behind the toe (toe) and the heel (heel) through the contact with the sole pressure sensor Force is transmitted to the air tube 12, and the pressure rises inside the entire air tube whose volume is reduced by the ideal gas equation.

Therefore, since the pressure change sensed by each air tube 12 is input by the pneumatic sensor 222 in voltage units, it is possible to determine whether the front and rear portions of the sole are in contact with the ground or away from each other, and can be easily used for control. In this case, when 5V power is supplied, the pneumatic sensor 222 outputs a signal between 0 and 5V according to the pressure of air from the air tube 12, and this output signal is transmitted to the DAQ board of the computer 108. It is input and used as a parameter to determine the condition of the foot.

In general, the potentiometer or pneumatic sensor applied to the present invention is supplied with + 5V power and a signal between 0 and 5V is derived from the output signal line. When the sensor is switched to another type of sensor, the voltage value may be supplied differently. Of course.

Accordingly, the computer 108 transmits a drive signal suitable for the motor 304 of the power transmission device 300 and at the same time the wearable robot worn by the user moves according to the desired motion of the user according to the driving torque of the power transmission device. Will assist.

As seen above, according to the foot pressure sensor of the intelligent muscle strength and walking aid robot according to the present invention, the user is wearing on and off the wear is installed on the frame of the sole operation mechanism during the configuration of the robot when walking the user There is an advantage that can accurately detect whether the sole touches the ground or dropped.

In particular, it is possible to detect an operation in which the sole is still touching or attempting to touch the ground at the time of the pressure change (sudden decrease or increase) occurring at the time of lifting the sole.

In addition, by attaching an acrylic plate on the air tube in the sole pressure sensor of the present invention, the sole pressure can be accurately measured without a pressure gradient on the pressure sensing portion.

Compared with the conventional on / off switch or FSR sensor, the structure is simple and shows excellent pressure sensing performance, and the manufacturing cost is low.

Claims (3)

Scaffolding with front and rear mounting holes; An air tube rolled up in a concentric manner so as to be pressurized by the front and rear of the sole and seated on the mounting hole of the footrest; Upper and lower silicon pads attached to upper and lower surfaces of the scaffold on which the air tubes are seated; An outlet tube of the air tube drawn out to one end of the silicon pad; The foot pressure sensor of the intelligent muscle strength and walking aid robot, characterized in that mounted on the frame of the sole operation mechanism of the wearable robot worn by the user. The sole foot pressure sensor of an intelligent muscle and walking assistance robot according to claim 1, further comprising an acrylic plate attached to the air tube mounting hole of the scaffold to press the upper surface of the air tube without a pressure gradient. According to claim 1, The discharge tube of the air tube is connected to a pneumatic sensor that detects the pressure change of the air tube and at the same time receives the pressure change in units of voltage, the output terminal of the pneumatic sensor is a control unit of the intelligent muscle and walking aid robot Sole pressure sensor of the intelligent muscle strength and walking aid robot, characterized in that connected with.

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