Design and Evaluation of AX-Deminer Forearm Assistance for Demining Soldier

Mine clearance operation using a mine detector often strains arm muscles because of the extended form of the detection pole. Implementing a gravity compensation device may be beneficial for alleviating this issue. Therefore, this paper presents a novel concept of passive-type forearm assistance for mine-detection soldiers. The proposed forearm assistance features a decoupled structure between a sweeping module and a gravity compensation unit. The sweeping module is implemented using a planar serial chain, allowing the required range of arm-sweeping motion for mine detection. The gravity compensation module, featuring a six-bar linkage with a linear spring, is located at the wearer’s back and compensates the detector’s weight transmitted through the sweeping module. The decoupled structure enables minimal exposure of the mechanism to the wearer. Design requirements are determined from motion analysis of mine-detection soldiers; kinematic relationships are derived for sweeping and gravity compensation modules. Based on the kinematic relationships, optimal synthesis methods are presented to determine design parameters. The proposed gravity compensation device has been experimentally validated for four mine-detection soldiers. Electromyography measurements of the upper limb demonstrate a significant reduction of up to 66% in % maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) when using forearm assistance. Thus, the proposed forearm assistance may reduce arm fatigue, enabling more extended operation duration during mine clearance tasks.