Development of musculoskeletal spine structure that fulfills great force requirements in upper body kinematics
Toyotaka Kozuki, Motegi Yotaro, Koji Kawasaki, Yuki Asano, Takuma Shirai, Soichi Ookubo, Yohei Kakiuchi, Kei Okada
Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to design and evaluate a spine structure which withstands various motions. The structure around the neck has a prevailing importance since it is involved in various motions of the upper half of the body. The new design method we introduce essentially shows how to design all 7 cervical vertebrae (the part of spine in the neck) in a limited space, actuated by the wires winded around the motors. Then we show the muscle arrangements around the upper half of the spine. More specifically, we make use of a so called planar muscle mechanism. An abduction experiment which requires great force around the spine is made to show its stability. Finally, we show a variable stiffness system which enables the spine to resist an impulsive force. We have tested the system in the situation of whiplash injury which is a case of extreme external forces which can occur in car crash accidents. As such we have evaluated the strength of the design and the viability of our robot to act as a human body simulator.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{iros2015_developmentofmus,
title = {Development of musculoskeletal spine structure that fulfills great force requirements in upper body kinematics},
author = {Toyotaka Kozuki and Motegi Yotaro and Koji Kawasaki and Yuki Asano and Takuma Shirai and Soichi Ookubo and Yohei Kakiuchi and Kei Okada and Masayuki Inaba},
booktitle = {IROS 2015},
year = {2015}
}