Mechanical and Controller Design of a Suspension-Type Care Assist Robot to Prevent Lower Back Pain

This paper addresses the design of a mechanism and control system for a suspension-type care assist robot to prevent caregivers’ lower back pain. When a caregiver assists in transfers of persons such as the elderly, a large load is placed on the caregiver’s lumbar and this load can cause lower back pain of the caregiver. To solve this problem, we propose the use of a suspension-type care assist robot that uses wires to pull the caregiver upward. After clarifying the mechanical configuration and assist control method of the robot, we clarify the validity of the proposed suspension-type care assist robot through theoretical analysis, simulation, and experiments.