Development of a muscle suit for the upper body—realization of abduction motion

A 'muscle suit' that will provide muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed. The muscle suit is a garment without a metal frame that uses McKibben actuators driven by compressed air to produce motion. Because the actuators are sewn into the garment, no metal frame is needed, making the muscle suit very light and cheap. These features are completely different from conventional methods for supporting humans. In this paper, the basic concept and advantages of the muscle suit are first described. In order to verify the feasibility of the basic concept, a prototype system is mounted on a life-size doll. This allows for the limitations of the original design to be identified. Next, an armor-type muscle suit is proposed in order to overcome some of the prototype's limitations. A full-range abduction motion, which is determined to be the most difficult upper body motion, is realized through geometric analysis and experimentation. In the future, the remaining arm motions will be investigated and implemented.