Wearable assistive device for lower limbs of caregiver on transferring support

Abstract

This paper introduces a wearable assistive device for lower limbs of a caregiver who helps an elderly or a physically challenged person transferring among a bed, a wheelchair. This wearable assistive device is not environment-dependent such as a transferring lift or slide board. The assistive device sustains the caregiver's weight at his/her hip by landing a floor with a wheel during transferring assistance. This paper proposes a unique mechanism to change the landing point according to the task progress. The position of the landing point is mechanically controlled to follow center of gravity of the caregiver so that he/she could move right and left with less effort while he/she is unweighted. The mechanism also prevents a caregiver's falling backward while bracing the caregiver's hip part at arbitrary height. These functions are confirmed through experiments by measuring ground reaction forces and myoelectric potential of the caregiver.