Development of a pneumatically-driven Growing Sling to assist patient transfer

In this study, a new type of sling for assisting bedridden patients is developed using a pneumatic growing mechanism. Growing Sling focuses on minimizing the labor input of the caregivers by automating the sling insertion and retraction process while maintaining safety and comfort. Improvements over the typical growing mechanism were made by reinforcing the sling with shafts and filament tape for restricting the height of the sling to ensure its design purpose. Analysis of forces exerted on the structure was made to interpret the driving power of the automated insertion process and to ensure the structural integrity of components. Experiments on materials and prototype devices were conducted to determine the quantitative load that the sling needs to endure and what type of material is suitable for fabrication. Further, we propose a fabrication process for the Growing Sling, including its dimensions, and validate the performance of the fabricated prototype.