Proposal of a SkilMate Hand and its component technologies for extravehicular activity gloves

In this study, we propose a SkilMate Hand for space extravehicular activity gloves which is equipped with devices of both a power assist and a tactile media. The paper focuses on development of component technologies for constructing a SkilMate Hand, which is proposed for recovering deteriorated haptic sensation in human hands. First, we manufacture a power assist device which compensates the bending moment exerted at a human finger joint utilizing a standing-wave-type ultrasonic motor. We plot the examined characteristics, propose a control policy of the actuators and show some control perforce in Bode plots. Second, we produce a tactile media device which is composed of a vibrotactile sensor element on the outer side and a vibrotactile display element on the inner side at the fingertips of the SkilMate Hand. Piezo-rubber is chosen to be used as a vibrotactile sensing transducer whose sensing performance is examined in the extremely high/low-temperature regions. We locate SkilMate in a wider framework of wearable intelligent machines which assist in affording such working surroundings that they can exhibit their skills in spite of their necessity for wearing special suits typical in hazardous environments. A proposal of a wearable intelligent machine such as that of a SkilMate with its concept has not been made before.