Yoo Hye Ju, Kim Woongbae, Lee Sang-Yoep, Choi Joonmyeong, Kim Youn Joo, Koo Da Som, Nam Yunja, Cho Kyu-Jin
IEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot. 2019 Jun;2019:950-956. doi: 10.1109/ICORR.2019.8779525.
Lymphedema is a non-curative chronic swelling caused by impairment of the lymphatic system, affecting up to 250 million patients worldwide. The patients suffer from low quality of life because of discomfort and reduced range of motion due to the swelling. Severe swellings can be immediately mediated with special massaging technique known as the Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD). Limitations of MLD involves long travel distances, the cost of regular treatment sessions, and the lack of lymphedema specialists. Since MLD is performed very gently, described as caressing a baby's head, soft wearable robotics with its inherent compliance and safety is the perfect solution to creating a light and safe wearable lymphedema massaging device. In this paper, origami-inspired soft fabric pneumatic actuator is developed that creates not only normal force, but also shear force which is essential in the performance of MLD. The shear is created by the unfolding of the Z-shaped fold-lines as the actuator is inflated. One Z-folded actuator module of 30 x 60 mm dimension with a single fold of 15 mm fold height creates maximum shear force of about 1.5 N and stroke displacement of about 30 mm when subjected to compression loading of 5 N. The range of forces exerted can be tuned by varying the tension of the compressive clothing covering the actuators, and the stroke displacement can be varied by changing the parameter of the actuator module itself, such as the fold height and the number of the folds. The modules can also be repeatedly actuated under compressive clothing, and therefore, the developed actuator modules have high potential as a wearable massaging device.
淋巴水肿是一种由淋巴系统受损引起的无法治愈的慢性肿胀疾病,全球有多达2.5亿患者受其影响。由于肿胀带来的不适和活动范围受限,患者的生活质量较低。严重的肿胀可以通过一种名为手动淋巴引流(MLD)的特殊按摩技术立即得到缓解。MLD的局限性包括路途遥远、定期治疗费用高以及缺乏淋巴水肿专科医生。由于MLD操作非常轻柔,就像抚摸婴儿的头部一样,具有固有柔顺性和安全性的柔软可穿戴机器人是制造轻便安全的可穿戴淋巴水肿按摩装置的完美解决方案。在本文中,开发了一种受折纸启发的柔软织物气动致动器,它不仅能产生法向力,还能产生MLD操作中必不可少的剪切力。当致动器充气时,Z形折线展开会产生剪切力。一个尺寸为30×60毫米、单折高度为15毫米的Z形折叠致动器模块,在受到5牛的压缩载荷时,能产生约1.5牛的最大剪切力和约30毫米的行程位移。施加的力的范围可以通过改变覆盖致动器的压缩衣物的张力来调整,行程位移可以通过改变致动器模块本身的参数来改变,如折叠高度和折叠数量。这些模块还可以在压缩衣物下反复致动,因此,所开发的致动器模块作为可穿戴按摩装置具有很大的潜力。