Assist wear item, control method for controller of assist wear item, and recording medium

A control method for a controller of an assist wear item that is worn on a portion of a living body and that has an inner surface which is brought into contact with the portion, the assist wear item including

• a plurality of assisting actuators each of which is driven to expand and contract, the plurality of assisting actuators being linearly arranged along an expansion/contraction direction of a muscle at the portion in a case where the assist wear item is worn on the portion,
• a plurality of contact sensors each of which detects a contact with an outer surface of the assist wear item, and
• the controller,
• the control method comprising:
• receiving a detection result indicating a first contact from a first contact sensor among the plurality of contact sensors;
• if a detection result indicating a contact is continuously received from a contact sensor arranged between the first contact sensor and a second contact sensor that is arranged at a certain distance or more from the first contact sensor during a time period after the receiving until a detection result indicating a second contact is received from the second contact sensor, increasing or decreasing a driving power of expansion/contraction driving of an assisting actuator corresponding to a region ranging from the first contact sensor to the second contact sensor among the plurality of assisting actuators;
• and
• if a detection result indicating a contact with the outer surface of the assist wear item is received from the first contact sensor during expansion/contraction driving of the assisting actuator, determining that the contact with the outer surface of the assist wear item is the first contact.

A recording medium storing a program that causes a device including a processor to perform processing executed by a controller of an assist wear item that is worn on a portion of a living body and that has an inner surface which is brought into contact with the portion,

• the recording medium being nonvolatile and computer-readable,
• the assist wear item including
• a plurality of assisting actuators each of which is driven to expand and contract, the plurality of assisting actuators being linearly arranged along an expansion/contraction direction of a muscle at the portion in a case where the assist wear item is worn on the portion,
• a plurality of contact sensors each of which detects a contact with an outer surface of the assist wear item, and
• the controller,
• the processing comprising:
• receiving a detection result indicating a first contact from a first contact sensor among the plurality of contact sensors;
• if a detection result indicating a contact is continuously received from a contact sensor arranged between the first contact sensor and a second contact sensor that is arranged at a certain distance or more from the first contact sensor during a time period after the receiving until a detection result indicating a second contact is received from the second contact sensor, increasing or decreasing a driving power of expansion/contraction driving of an assisting actuator corresponding to a region ranging from the first contact sensor to the second contact sensor among the plurality of assisting actuators;
• and
• if a detection result indicating a contact with the outer surface of the assist wear item is received from the first contact sensor during expansion/contraction driving of the assisting actuator, determining that the contact with the outer surface of the assist wear item is the first contact.

An assist wear item comprising:

• a first sensor that detects a first contact with the assist wear item and outputs a first signal;
• a second sensor that detects a second contact with the assist wear item and outputs a second signal;
• a third sensor that detects a third contact with the assist wear item and outputs a third signal;
• an actuator that changes a degree of contraction in response to a control signal including information indicating the degree of contraction;
• and
• a controller that receives the first signal, the second signal, and the third signal, and outputs the control signal, the controller generating the control signal if the controller receives the first signal after the controller receives an instruction to start driving the actuator, the controller receives the second signal after the controller receives the first signal, and the controller receives the third signal after the controller receives the second signal,
• wherein the controller determines the information in a manner that the degree of contraction increases as a sum of a first distance between the first sensor and the second sensor and a second distance between the second sensor and the third sensor increases.