Development and experiment study of an intelligent walking-aid robot

In this study, an intelligent walking-aid robot is developed for walking assistance, training and rehabilitation of the elderly. Based on recognising the human user's motion intentions online by multiple sensors, the proposed robot is aimed to provide physical support and mobility aid for the old people during their walking. A force sensing resistors (FSRs)-based force measuring subsystem is designed to acquire the interaction forces between the user and the robot. The user's motion intention is then estimated by analysing the relationship between the measured interaction forces and human intention force/torque. Furthermore, the estimated intention is used to guide the admittance-based motion control of robot. To ensure the safety of using the robot, a laser range finder (LRF) is utilised to detect the distance between the robot and the user's legs. A distance restraint control is then designed and taken into action when the distance is found beyond a safe threshold. Experiments were conducted and the results verified the effectiveness of the developed robot system and control methods.