Intelligent assistance for older adults via an admittance-controlled wheeled mobile manipulator with task-dependent end-effectors

Artificial‐Intelligence‐Powered Lower Limb Assistive Devices: Future of Home Care Technologies

“…We proposed a strategy that takes advantage of the cooperative dynamic movement primitives (DMPs) method to assist the user's walking. [ 35 ] The algorithm can learn user‐specified walking patterns over one gait cycle using cooperative DMPs, where a variable admittance control (VAC) approach is used to update the smart walker's desired path to reach the desired locomotion pattern. The VAC approach employs the interaction force in all directions to adjust the velocity of walking.…”

“…The performance of the proposed approach was demonstrated with a custom‐built smart walker, which was equipped with a force/torque sensor to measure interaction force/torque. [ 35 ] The performance of the VAC method in detecting the user's walking intention is presented in Figure . The applied vertical force () resulted in acceleration in the horizontal direction.…”

“…The performance of the cooperative DMPs in handling an emergency was tested and the results are shown in Figure . [ 35 ] An applied unsafe force by the user (e.g., as a result of falling) is detected and the dangerous situation is avoided using our proposed method. Specifically, when a large vertical force (≈52 N) was applied at 8.03 s, the walker stopped with a reaction time no longer than 150 ms.…”

“…[ 34 ] Additionally, a smart walker with the capability of detecting falls is introduced in Section 6, which can be used alone or in conjunction with an exoskeleton. [ 35 ]…”

“…a) demonstrates the applied forces, and b) shows the resultant trajectories. Reproduced with permission [35]. Copyright 2022, Elsevier.…”