Toward the improvement of the walking assist system

This study deals with the development of the device that assists the walking of the people who are difficult to stretch the knee joint cased by lack of muscular power. Our system focused on the feature of the air pressure, because the air has the softness characteristics. So we use the air cylinder as the actuator to assist the stretch of knee joint. This article describes the assist method of the walking assist by using the potentiometer as the joint angle sensors. The potentiometer is the most popular and simple detector so if it can be used in the walking assist system, the reliability of the system becomes very good, although the potentiometer can detect only single signal of angle. We have conducted the walking experiment, from the experimental result we confirmed the potentiometer is able to distinguish the difference of the walking state such as the walk on flat or step. We proposed the method of the walking assist using the potentiometer, and evaluate the performance of the system.