Study on the development of pedal locomotory air matt for assistive mobility equipment

Abstract

In order to develop an indoor assistive mobility equipment, we paid attention to the mechanism of locomotion in a snail. It is known that the snail moves by propagation of a pedal wave generating on a pedal surface of the snail and a pedal locomotion has flexibility for ground condition. An air matt with a function of a pedal-like locomotion mechanism has been developed. In this paper, the performance and the applicability of the pedal locomotory air matt as the mobility equipment was discussed.