Title: Development and experiment study of an intelligent walking-aid robot

Authors: Chunjing Tao; Rui Han; Jian Huang; Xitai Wang; Lifang Ma

Addresses: R&D Department, National Research Center for Rehabilitation Technical Aids, Beijing, China ' School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China ' School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China ' R&D Department, National Research Center for Rehabilitation Technical Aids, Beijing, China ' R&D Department, National Research Center for Rehabilitation Technical Aids, Beijing, China

Abstract: In this study, an intelligent walking-aid robot is developed for walking assistance, training and rehabilitation of the elderly. Based on recognising the human user's motion intentions online by multiple sensors, the proposed robot is aimed to provide physical support and mobility aid for the old people during their walking. A force sensing resistors (FSRs)-based force measuring subsystem is designed to acquire the interaction forces between the user and the robot. The user's motion intention is then estimated by analysing the relationship between the measured interaction forces and human intention force/torque. Furthermore, the estimated intention is used to guide the admittance-based motion control of robot. To ensure the safety of using the robot, a laser range finder (LRF) is utilised to detect the distance between the robot and the user's legs. A distance restraint control is then designed and taken into action when the distance is found beyond a safe threshold. Experiments were conducted and the results verified the effectiveness of the developed robot system and control methods.

Keywords: rehabilitation robots; walking aids; intelligent rehabilitation aids; motion control; intention estimation; walking assistance; training; elderly; old people; force sensing resistors; force measurement; interaction forces; human-robot interaction; robot control; robot safety; laser range finders; distance restraint control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2015.072618

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2015 Vol.24 No.3, pp.216 - 223

Received: 13 Mar 2015
Accepted: 13 Mar 2015
Published online: 22 Oct 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article