근골격계 질환 예방을 위한 상지 외골격 로봇 설계

Abstract

This paper proposes a design method for the upper-limb exoskeleton robot to prevent the onset of musculoskeletal diseases occurring in industrial sites. The muscle fatigue was measured before and after the wearing of the exoskeleton robot, and the obtained values were compared. Musculoskeletal diseases take place when simple repetitive motions or constant burdens from external weights are applied for a time longer than a certain time to humans. In this research, the work group conducting cashier work was selected as the musculoskeletal-disease subject group, the pain felt at the human muscles and joints owing to the risk factor was investigated, and motion analysis of the human engineering aspects was conducted. The parameters of the robot were selected for the design of an upper-limb exoskeleton robot based on the muscle activation and joint angle values, the yardstick obtained through the work environment and motion analyses, and kinematic analysis was conducted on the conceptualized robot design to confirm if the robot can express itself in all kinds of workspace. . Moreover, the specifications of the actuators were determined through the dynamic analysis of the robot, based on the data obtained from the motion analysis. In addition, the research introduced the detailed composition, power transmission, and sensors of the robot designed through the methods mentioned above. Especially, we had considered complex shoulder motion in anatomical motion during the shoulder Adduction-Abduction and Retraction-Protraction and measured displacement between robot and human joint. As a result it was applied to upper-limb exoskeleton robot design. In this paper, The upper-limb exoskeleton robot designed was evaluated through the comparative analysis of the muscle fatigue before and after the wearing of the exoskeleton robot. The analysis was made with focus on the prevention of the onset of musculoskeletal diseases when the robot is actually worn, by analyzing the muscle fatigue index MF, and the research results were discussed.