Development of a Master--Slave Finger Exoskeleton Driven by Pneumatic Artificial Muscles

• Published in: Intelligent Autonomous Systems 14 Vol. 531; pp. 77 - 89
• Main Authors: Urino, Takuya, Ikemoto, Shuhei, Hosoda, Koh
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2017; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; fMRI; Image processing; Master–slave; Metalless; Pneumatic artificial muscles
• ISBN: 9783319480350; 3319480359
• ISSN: 2194-5357; 2194-5365
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-48036-7_7

This paper presents a master–slave finger exoskeleton developed to allow subjects whose brain activity is being measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to remotely perform tasks. The MRI environment requires the device to be free from metal components and strongly immobilized, which can reduce the device’s versatility and ease of setup. To overcome these limitations, we designed a finger exoskeleton using pneumatic artificial muscles, which can be made metal–free and used for not only actuators but also sensors. We also proposed a symmetric, bilateral control method for the device, and experimentally validated device performance and its control method.