The force control and path planning of electromagnetic induction-based massage robot

作者:Wang, Wendong*; Zhang, Lei; Li, Jinzhe; Yuan, Xiaoqing; Shi, Yikai; Jiang, Qinqin; He, Lijing
来源:Technology and Health Care, 2017, 25: S275-S285.
DOI:10.3233/THC-171331

摘要

BACKGROUND: Massage robot is considered as an effective physiological treatment to relieve fatigue, improve blood circulation, relax muscle tone, etc. The simple massage equipment quickly spread into market due to low cost, but they are not widely accepted due to restricted massage function. Complicated structure and high cost caused difficulties for developing multi-function massage equipment. @@@ OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a novel massage robot which can achieve tapping, rolling, kneading and other massage operations, and proposes an improved reciprocating path planning algorithm to improve massage effect. @@@ METHODS: The number of coil turns, the coil current and the distance between massage head and yoke were chosen to investigate the influence on massage force by finite element method. The control system model of the wheeled massage robot was established, including control subsystem of the motor, path algorithm control subsystem, parameter module of the massage robot and virtual reality interface module. The improved reciprocating path planning algorithm was proposed to improve regional coverage rate and massage effect. @@@ RESULTS: The influence caused by coil current, the number of coil turns and the distance between massage head and yoke were simulated in Maxwell. It indicated that coil current has more important influence compared to the other two factors. The path planning simulation of the massage robot was completed in Matlab, and the results show that the improved reciprocating path planning algorithm achieved higher coverage rate than the traditional algorithm. @@@ CONCLUSIONS: With the analysis of simulation results, it can be concluded that the number of coil turns and the distance between the moving iron core and the yoke could be determined prior to coil current, and the force can be controllable by optimizing structure parameters of massage head and adjusting coil current. Meanwhile, it demonstrates that the proposed algorithm could effectively improve path coverage rate during massage operations, therefore the massage effect can be improved.