A System Reducing Pressure of Buttock while Seating Using Pneumatic Actuators

— Pressure controlled pneumatic actuator system on the seat of a chair is proposed in this research. In the system, nine pneumatic actuators are allocated on the surface of a chair and inner pressures of them are controlled to alleviate the concentration of contact pressure between skin of a user and surface of the seat. Fundamental characteristics of the developed pneumatic actuator are evaluated experimentally. In addition, construction of the control system of them is introduced. The effectiveness of the adjustment of inner pressure of the actuators to alleviate the concentration of contact pressure is confirmed through experiments.