Bionic chair system with pressure sensing and adjustment

Abstract

Many people are spending longer time sitting, and hence more attention is being drawn on the pressure distribution. Sitting pressure distribution is important because having high pressure concentrated on one area might lead to muscular soreness and discomfort. This problem is especially acute for people having problem of pressure ulcers, for high pressure can cause more severe pain. This paper aims to develop a chair that enables pressure sensing at multiple locations in real-time and therefore the sitting pressure distribution is known. The Arduino Mega board has been used to process and display the sensing data. Pressure distributions on four different surfaces were tested, and the effectiveness of cushions were verified. Ten robotic extenders were implemented at the base of the chair with an aim to adjusting the pressure distribution, and the effectiveness of this mechatronics feature was tested. The finding is that the retraction function was effective to decrease pressure. This paper provides a direction for constructing bionic chair system with sitting pressure sensing and adjustment. It might contribute to achieving flexible and customized pressure distribution according to different requirements.