Analysis of cane-assisted walking through nonlinear optimization

Assistance to walking is a key point in improving autonomy during daily living activities of elderly and disabled people. Despite the significant number of active robotized walkers and canes proposed in the literature, only few studies focused on the mechanical influence of assistive devices on the gait generation process. A deeper analysis of assisted walking dynamics is very likely to help improving the design and the adequacy of the robotized assistants. In this paper a simulation framework of impaired and cane assisted gaits is developed. Simulations of common passive cane assistance allow a deeper analysis of its contributions to the locomotion. The behaviour of an active cane and its beneficial impact on the energetics of impaired gaits are exposed.