Assessment of local muscle fatigue by NIRS - development and evaluation of muscle suit -

[摘要] Although the machinery automation technology and robotics have made significant progress in making production and distribution easy and efficient, there is still a need for manual work such as nursing and other manufacturing work. Those work could possibly cause the work-related disorders. In order to reduce the risk of work-related injury or illness, we have been developing a compact and lightweight wearable robot “Muscle Suit” to provide direct and physical motion supports for assisting human motion. The development of the Muscle Suit becomes possible through the use of the McKibben artificial muscle. This type of artificial muscle has the advantages of being compact, lightweight and reliable. The wearable Muscle Suit has high versatility and conveyance, it supports the user physically with the capability of loading more weights. The evaluation of effectiveness is a key point in the development of the Muscle Suit and it could be estimated by evaluating the muscle fatigue. The evaluation of muscle fatigue is required not only for muscle suit but also for rehabilitation, muscle training and human physical support. Although the frequency transition of electromyogram (EMG) method is generally used for fatigue assessment, it has certain drawbacks depending on conditions and environment. For instance, it is impossible to apply it in the case of isotonic contraction. There are no apparatus or methods which measure muscle fatigue noninvasively and simply. In this study, we used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure the serum oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration of wearer’s muscle indirectly, the new term ΔHbt has been defined and the degree of fatigue has also been evaluated. And then, we had the evaluation experiment of muscle suit using blood oxygenation and the new term ΔHbt to estimate the effects of muscle suit.

[学科分类] 人工智能

[关键词] Muscle suit;Fatigue estimation;Muscle fatigue;Haptic sensor;Near-infrared spectroscopy