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Development of the linear EAM brake device for the application to the lower extremity orthosis Genki Yamada, Kazuyuki Mitsui, Tadashi Yasui , Kouzi Sakurai and Hidenobu Anzai Abstract— The EAM is a functional material sheet which we developed. When the EAM is sandwiched between electrodes, the force of attracting electrodes is occurred by applying a high voltage. And when the electrode is made to slide, the shearing resistance force, made by that force attracting electrode, occurs between the electrode and EAM. We developed the linear brake device using this EAM. Then, we evaluated performance of that device and the result of the evaluation was reported. I. INTRODUCTION Many gait disorder persons who have disorder owing to loss of muscle strength by injury or cerebral apoplexy is in the world. The lower extremity orthosis is used in order to support the person who have disorder. However, the existing lower extremity orthosis has only the fixing or relief function. Consequently, the case of a bending knee and the case of a lengthened knee cannot be changed. If development of the small and lightweight brake device which can fix the angle in the knees in arbitrary positions and it is canceled and the lower extremity orthosis is equipped it, we thought that the lower extremity orthosis in which easy walk support, walk support of walking on stair, etc. are possible can be developed. Then, we paid my attention to the EAM (Electro Attractive Material). II. EAM The EAM (Electro attractive material) was developed by us, and it is new functional material sheet which dispersed particles which polarize easily in the silicone rubber. This EAM has the force attracting the electrode when the EAM is sandwiched between electrodes and a high voltage is applied. And when the electrode is made to slide, the shearing resistance force, made by that force attracting electrode, occurs between the electrode and EAM. It is a new functional material. The shearing resistance force is controllable by the size of voltage, and the contact area of the EAM and the electrode. And the shearing resistance force occurs by tens of microampere current. III. THE LINEAR EAM BRAKE DEVICE We developed the brake device which can generate resistance in linear direction taking advantage of EAM. Then, we called that brake device the linear EAM brake device. On the measured result of the shear resistance force of the linear EAM brake device and the relation of the voltage, the shear resistance force increased with the increase in voltage. And, when voltage was 700 V, the shear resistance force was 52.9 N. From those results, the linear EAM brake device has been confirmed that it was possible to adjust breaking force by control of voltage. Therefore, we thought it possible to apply it to lower extremity orthosis. However, with this device, since the occurring shear resistance force was small, consideration of a method which generates stronger shear resistance force was needed. The combination of an electrode and EAM was called the unit. Then, we devised the method of piling up many of the unit and making resistance increase by multilayering. The small linear EAM brake device which can generate strong resistance was developed by using multilayering units. We called it the multi-layer linear EAM brake device. We measured in order to confirm whether strong resistance is generated by increasing the unit of the multi-layer linear EAM brake device. As a result, the resistance of the multi-layer linear EAM brake device became large in proportion to the number of the units. IV. LOWER EXTREMITY ORTHOSIS From measurement of the multi-layer linear EAM brake device, it is thought possible to generate the resistance supporting the body by further increasing the number of the units. And, since magnetism does not occur, the multi-layer linear EAM brake device has not a bad influence on a human body and a machine. Terefore we thought that lower extremity orthosis which offers advanced support could be developed by using the multi-layer linear EAM brake device. V. CONCLUSION (a) Attractive force (b) Shear resistance force Fig. 1 Force between EAM and electrode Genki Yamada is with the Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo, Japan (e-mail: [email protected]). Kazuyuki Mitsui is with Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo, Japan (e-mail:[email protected]) Tadashi Yasui is with Kawamura Gishi Co., Ltd, Osaka, Japan. (e-mail:[email protected]) Kouzi Sakurai is with Fujikura Kasei Co., LTD. ,Saitama, Japan.(e-mail:[email protected]) Hidenobu Anzai is with Fujikura Kasei Co., LTD. ,Saitama, Japan (e-mail:[email protected]). In this research, we succeeded in development of the linear brake device which can perform control by voltage. The resistance of this brake device was a value which can be used for lower extremity orthosis. REFERENCES [1] K.Kumagai “Development of the wearable upper limb training equipment using the multi-layer EAM brake device” 34th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Abstract book EMBC 2012.