Development of Intelligent Walker based on Passive Robotics Concept

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a concept of Passive Robotics which is one of the approaches for supporting humans physically. Based on the passive robotics, we develop a new intelligent walker referred to as RT Walker for supporting elderly people, blind people, or handicapped people who have difficulties in walking. RT Walker consists of a support frame, wheels, servo brakes, and controllers. RT Walker has a passive dynamics with respect to a force/moment applied to it and a simple structure, because it does not have some servo motors. However, several functions for RT Walker could be realized by controlling the brake torque of each servo brake appropriately based on Robot Technologies (RT) . In this paper, especially, we propose motion control algorithms of RT Walker for changing its apparent dynamics to adapt to difficulties of the user, and for moving based on the information of an environment. The proposed control algorithms are implemented in RT Walker actually, and the experimental results illustrate the validity of RT Walker and its motion control algorithms.