- 著者
- Hideki TODA Takeshi MATSUMOTO Shin SUGIHARA
- 出版者
- The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
- 雑誌
- Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems, and Manufacturing (ISSN:18813054)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.13, no.2, pp.JAMDSM0034, 2019 (Released:2019-05-14)
- 参考文献数
- 24
- 被引用文献数
- 4 4
In this paper, to mechanize a human ankle joint stretching treatment that is mainly performed by a PT (Physical Therapist), the geometrical relationships among the Ankle joint, Hip joint, Sole, and pushing device rotation center are analyzed using a simple numerical calculation model, and the effectiveness of the model was examined in an actual developed system. The stretching of the ankle joint is an important medical treatment that PTs perform to help their patients to recover their ability to walk and to prevent contracture. Because the ankle joint treatment requires a large amount of force (equal to the subject’s weight) and precise angle control at the same time, manual treatment by PTs has not been replaced by mechanical treatment systems. In a previous study, we developed a new mechanism of ankle joint stretching that involves fixing the length of the subject sitting chair and the device; the novel mechanism can realize comfortable stretching without pain. However, the optimum geometrical relationships among the Ankle joint, Hip joint, Sole, and pushing device rotation center have not been analyzed. In this paper, to develop the effective mechanism of the stretching treatment, the geometrical relationships were analyzed mathematically by using numerical calculation, and the effectiveness of the numerical calculation was confirmed by manufacturing a treatment device comprising two force sensors and two DC motors based on the calculation results. Numerical calculation results show that the PT’s key point of the ankle joint treatment was a position located between the Ankle joint and the pushing device rotation center. The analytical result will effectively promote the development of the mechanical systems used as ankle joint stretching treatment devices.