Evaluation of active wearable assistive devices with human posture reproduction using a humanoid robot^*

* This paper is selected as the “Cutting Edge of Robotics in Japan” by the Editorial Committee of Advanced Robotics.

ABSTRACT

This study proposes a quantitative evaluation method for assessing active wearable assistive devices that can efficiently support the human body. We utilize a humanoid robot to simulate human users wearing assistive devices owing to various advantages offered by the robot such as quantitative torque measurement from sensors and highly repeatable motion. In this study, we propose a scheme for estimating the supportive torques supplied by a device called stationary torque replacement. To validate the reliability of this evaluation method by using a humanoid robot, we conducted measurements of human muscular activity during assisted motion. Analysis of the measured muscle activity revealed that a humanoid robot closely simulates the actual usage of assistive devices. Finally, we showed the feasibility of the proposed evaluation method through an experiment with the humanoid robot platform HRP-4 and the Muscle Suit active assistive device. With the proposed method, the supportive effects of the assistive device could be measured quantitatively in terms of the static supportive torque acting directly on the body of a simulated human user.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Humanoid robot
• evaluation of assistive devices
• human-like motion

Acknowledgements

We express sincere gratitude to Dr. Yumeko Imamura of AIST for her support and advice for the measurement of human motion.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Takahiro Ito http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2886-1067

Notes

* This paper is selected as the “Cutting Edge of Robotics in Japan” by the Editorial Committee of Advanced Robotics.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Takahiro Ito

Takahiro Ito received the B.E. degree from the Ibaraki University, Japan in 2015, and the M.S. degree in system and information engineering from University of Tsukuba, Japan in 2017. He is currently in the second year of his Ph.D. in system and information engineering at University of Tsukuba, and CNRS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory, UMI3218/RL. His current research interests include evaluation of active assistive device by using humanoid robot, contact estimation on humanoid robot. He is a member of the IEEE and RSJ.

Ko Ayusawa

Ko Ayusawa received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechano-informatics from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 2006, 2008, and 2011, respectively. He worked with the Department of Mechano-Informatics at the University of Tokyo, as a postdoctoral researcher from 2011 to 2012, and as a project assistant processor in 2013. He is currently a researcher of Intelligent Systems Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, and a researcher of CNRS-AIST JRL (Joint Robotics Laboratory), UMI3218/RL. His research interests include identification of human/humanoid dynamics, motion control for humanoid robots, and kinematics and dynamics simulation for human musculoskeletal models.

Eiichi Yoshida

Eiichi Yoshida received M.E. and Ph.D. degrees on Precision Machinery Engineering from Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo in 1993 and 1996, respectively. In 1996, he joined former Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, later reorganized as National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan. He served as Co-Director of AIST/IS-CNRS/ST2I Joint French-Japanese Robotics Laboratory (JRL) at LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France, from 2004 to 2008. Since 2009, he has been serving as Co-Director of CNRS-AIST JRL (Joint Robotics Laboratory), UMI3218/RL, and appointed as Director in 2017. He also serves as Deputy Director of Intelligent Systems Research Institute (IS-AIST), AIST, Tsukuba, Japan since 2015. He was awarded Chevalier, l'Ordre National du Mérite from French Government for his long-term contributions to French–Japanese collaboration on robotics in 2016. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, and member of RSJ and JSME. His research interests include robot task and motion planning, human modeling, and humanoid robots.

Hiroshi Kobayashi

Hiroshi Kobayashi was born in 1966. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Tokyo University of Science, Japan, in 1990, 1992, and 1995, respectively. He received a Japanese society for the promotion of science (JSPS) Research Fellowships for Young Scientists as DC1 from 1992 to 1995 and JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad from 1996 to 1998 at AI Lab., University of Zurich. He was a lecturer at Tokyo University of Science in 1998, associate professor in 1999, and has been a professor since 2008. He is very much interested in not only unique research works but also real products for supporting human daily life physically and has 75 patents including 27 sold ones. He is a founder and CTO of venture company INNOPHYS Co., Ltd. established in 2013. He received more than 20 awards such as JSME Best Paper Award in 1996, 2005, 2010, 2014. He is a fellow member of the Robotics Society of Japan.