Development of Flexible Pneumatic Cylinder with Backdrivability and Its Application

In the remote controlled rehabilitation device, physical therapists must recognize the situation of the patient. The actuator in the device is also required to be flexible so as not to injure the body. In our previous study, the flexible pneumatic cylinder was proposed and tested. The flexible robot arm using the cylinders for human wrist rehabilitation was also developed. In the next step, it is necessary to develop the master device for bilateral masterslave control. In this paper, the flexible pneumatic cylinder with backdrivability for bilateral control is proposed and tested. The performance of the tested cylinder is also investigated. After that, the master robot arm using the tested flexible cylinders is proposed and constructed.