Passive omnidirectional walker - design and control -

An omnidirectional passive walking aid system called "Omni RT Walker" (omnidirectional robot-technology walker) is proposed in this paper. Omni RT Walker consists of an omnidirectional platform with servo brake system, an onboard control unit and a frame. The system is called passive since it excludes motion generating parts such as wheel actuators and translates by force applied by its user, but includes controllable units; servo brakes in our prototype. Variable dynamics control is the control scheme applied to Omni RT Walker in order to modify its dynamic characteristics according to user\´s walking ability. System identification is performed to evaluate and validate this control scheme