Title :
Standing motion assistance on a robotic walker based on the estimated patient´s load
Author :
Morita, Yusuke ; Chugo, Daisuke ; Sakaida, Yuki ; Yokota, Sho ; Takase, Kunikatsu
Author_Institution :
Kwansei Gakuin Univ., Sanda, Japan
Abstract :
This paper proposes a standing assistance control with a patient´s load estimation for our robotic walker system. Our developing robotic walker realizes a standing assistance using its support pad which is actuated by novel assistance manipulator mechanisms on its body with four parallel linkages. Our system assists a standing motion using a remaining physical strength of patients maximally in order not to decrease their force generating capacity. For realizing this function, this paper proposes the following two topics. The first topic is an load estimation scheme of a patient who uses our assistance system. Our developed system measures a body motion and the applied force of a patient during standing assistance, and our system estimates the load of trunk, knee and ankle joint using a linkage model which approximates the human body. The second topic is a combination of force and position control. According to the estimated load of a patient during standing motion, our control system selects more appropriate control method from them and realizes the standing assistance using the physical strength of the patient. The performance of our system is verified by experiments using our prototype.
Keywords :
force control; manipulators; medical robotics; motion control; position control; ankle joint load estimation; assistance manipulator mechanisms; body motion measurement; force control; knee load estimation; linkage model; parallel linkages; patient load estimation; position control; robotic walker system; standing motion assistance control; support pad; trunk load estimation; Actuators; Couplings; DC motors; Force; Joints; Position control; Senior citizens;
Conference_Titel :
Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), 2012 4th IEEE RAS & EMBS International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Rome
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-1199-2
DOI :
10.1109/BioRob.2012.6290737