A Suitable Design of Assist System for Human Meal by Reducing Maneuverability Variance in Workspace

摘要

Some persons require assistance with their movements during meals. A support system for such persons would be invaluable. However, in designing such a system, crucial challenges such as freedom of movement arrangement and maneuverability of the system without disturbing human body movement have to be overcome. In this study, we extracted the major modes of human meal movement from meal movement motion-capture data and derived a suitable and feasible arrangement that reduces maneuverability variance in the workspace via iterative calculations based on inverse kinematics. The results of analyses indicate that the shoulder's extension/flection and external/internal motions and the elbow's extension/flection are suitable arrangements that give the freedom to equalize maneuverability in the workspace.