Changes in skin temperature are known to be affected by blood flow. The reaction of skin temperature and blood flow when various stimuli are applied to the body has been investigated for many years. However, body reactions when different stimuli are applied concurrently to the body have not been well studied. This study investigated changes in blood flow and skin temperature when massage stimulation and thermal stimulation were applied to the body simultaneously. Skin temperature tended to change quickly when a massage stimulus was present during the task. In addition, the amount of blood flowing values were significantly higher and the speed of blood flow values tended to be higher during tasks with massage stimulus. Massage stimulation thus appears to significantly affect blood flow and accelerate changes in skin temperature from hot and cool stimulations.

In total knee joint replacement, the femur and the tibia must be precisely shaped to ensure that they firmly mate with the artificial joint. The normal procedure is to manually cut the bones using a bone saw and mechanical jigs. A 9-axis bone cutting machine tool has been developed by the authors to increase cutting accuracy and reduce the hospital stay required for recuperation. As developed, the cut plane is determined by a 5 degree-of-freedom mechanism and the femur and tibia are cut by moving two translational and one rotational degrees of freedom, a system that provides a cutter path which avoids cutting the ligament. A preoperative planning system based on CAD/CAM principles and an overview of a system for total knee arthroplasty is also discussed. Experimental results showed the effectiveness of the developed robot and the system.