Design and control of smart rollators have attracted increasing research interests in the past decades. To meet the requirements of the elderly or disabled users, this paper proposes a novel design and tracking control scheme for empowering and assisting natural human mobility with a four-wheeled rollator. Firstly, by integrating the advantages of Kano Model Analysis and the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), we introduce a novel Kano-TRIZ industrial design method to design and optimize its mechanical structure. The demand and quality characteristics of the clinical rollator are analyzed according to the Kano model. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and TRIZ are adopted to integrate industrial product innovations and optimize the function configuration. Furthermore, a lateral stability controller based on Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme is introduced to achieve good tracking control performance with the lateral deviation and the heading angle deviation. Finally, the feasibility of the design and control method is verified with a simulation study. The simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm keeps the lateral position error in a reasonable range. In the co-simulation of ADAMS-MATLAB, the trajectory of the rollator is smooth with constrained position error within 0.1 m, the turning angle and speed can achieve stable tracking control within 5 s and the heading angle is accurate and the speed is stable. A compared experiment with MPC and SMC show that MPC controller has faster response, higher tracking accuracy and smoother trajectory on the novel designed rollator. With the increasing demand for rollators in the global market, the methodology proposed in this paper will attract more research and industry interests.

In the past few decades, the research of assistant mobile rollators for the elderly has attracted more and more investigation attention. In order to satisfy the needs of older people or disabled patients, this paper develops a neural approximation based predictive tracking control scheme to improve and support the handicapped through the novel four-wheeled rollator. Firstly, considering the industrial product theory, a novel Kano-TRIZ-QFD engineering design approach is presented to optimize the mechanical structure combined with humanistic care. At the same time, in order to achieve a stable trajectory tracking control for the assistant rollator system, a neural approximation enhanced predictive tracking control is discussed. Finally, autonomous tracking mobility of the presented control scheme has received sufficient advantage performance in position and heading angle variations under the external uncertainties. As the market for the medical device of the elderly rollators continues to progress, the method discussed in this article will attract more investigation and industry concerns.

Design and control of a lower-limb exoskeleton rehabilitation of the elderly are the main challenge for health care in the past decades. In order to satisfy the requirements of the elderly or disabled users, this paper presents a novel design and adaptive fuzzy control of lower-limb empowered rehabilitation, namely MOVING UP. Different from other rehabilitation devices, this article considers active rehabilitation training devices. Firstly, a novel product design method based on user experience is proposed for the lower-limb elderly exoskeleton rehabilitation. At the same time, in order to achieve a stable operation control for the assistant rehabilitation system, an adaptive fuzzy control scheme is discussed. Finally, the feasibility of the design and control method is validated with a detailed simulation study and the human-interaction test. With the booming demand in the global market for the assistive lower-limb exoskeleton, the methodology developed in this paper will bring more research and manufacturing interests. Electronics 2020, 9, 343 2 of 17 the effectiveness of rehabilitation training. A wearable upper limb therapy robot based on Pneumatic Muscle Actuator (PMA) was introduced in Reference [13]. This device has five degrees of freedom, works similarly to human muscle functions, has high compliance and safety. Besides, Reference [14] developed a cable drive for the exoskeleton, which has seven degrees of freedom and can be used in medical, remote control, test research, and other fields.In general, the structure of the exoskeleton rehabilitation device is simple, but it is challenging to carry out rehabilitation training for the local body parts, and the rehabilitation effect is not ideal [15,16]. The research of the end-effector rehabilitation device is mainly used in limb rehabilitation, remote control, and other fields, and its research direction focuses on improving freedom, ensuring safety and reducing complexity, and so forth. Existing exoskeleton rehabilitation devices are complicated and expensive, and they are mostly used in experiments and difficult to achieve marketization. Both types of rehabilitation devices have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is necessary to select a suitable rehabilitation device type in specific applications and match different training modes to achieve a better training effect [17].The early version in Reference [18] developed by the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, was passive gait training. Continuous passive movement (CPM) machines and simple rehabilitation treadmills, which are widely used in clinical practice, generally only provide passive training modes. An ankle rehabilitation robot based on steady-state visual evoked potentials was discussed in Reference [19], which combined SSVEP signals with a virtual reality environment and was able to determine the subject's intention to perform passive training. In addition, for rule-based control structures, a human-machine interface was presented in Reference [20]. The robot manipulator (RM) can pe...