Robotic Cane Controlled to Adapt Automatically to Its User Gait Characteristics

Abstract

Research on robotic assistance devices tries to minimize the risk of falls due to misuse of non-actuated canes. This paper contributes to this research effort by presenting a novel control strategy of a robotic cane that adapts automatically to its user gait characteristics. We verified the proposed control law on a robotic cane sharing the main shape features of a non-actuated cane. It consists of a motorized telescopic shaft mounted on the top of two actuated wheels driven by the same motor. Cane control relies on two Inertial Measurement Units (IMU). One is attached to the cane and the other to the thigh of its user impaired leg. During the swing phase of this leg, the motor of the wheels is controlled to enable the tracking of the impaired leg thigh angle by the cane orientation. The wheels are immobilized during the stance phase to provide motionless mechanical support to the user. The shaft length is continuously adjusted to keep a constant height of the cane handle. The primary goal of this work is to show the feasibility of the cane motion synchronization with its user gait. The control strategy looks promising after several experiments. After further investigations and experiments with end-users, the proposed control law could pave the road toward its use in robotic canes used either as permanent assistance or during rehabilitation.

Lightweight and compact smart walking cane

“…Some of the work already carried out on SCs is presented in Naeem & Assal (2019) , Shim & Yoon (2003) , Spenko, Yu & Dubowsky (2006) , Wang et al (2015) , Van Lam & Fujimoto (2017) , Stramel et al (2019) , Trujillo-León et al (2020) and Ady, Bachta & Bidaud (2014) .…”

Improved real-time gait phase detection using simple force sensors, sequencing conditions and smart fault management

“…Those falls are induced by postural instabilities, muscle weaknesses or buckling of lower-limb joints [2] and can lead to severe injuries, long term impairment up to death (second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths worldwide according to WHO). Numerous technical devices are currently being developed to address this issue, such as advanced orthotic devices such as the C-Brace developed by Ottobock [3], exoskeletons such as the Keeogo from B-temia [4], smart canes [5], wearable airbags [6], etc. One key challenge for those devices is to be able to efficiently detect the fall through sensors in a fast or anticipatory way.…”

Human-Human Hand Interactions Aid Balance During Walking by Haptic Communication

“…A robotic device that aids a person’s walking falls under the class of “cooperation,” where the robot seeks either to assist or educate the human. Hand-operated robotic devices have recently been developed to aid walking similar to a powered cane ( Suzuki et al, 2009 ; Di et al, 2016 ; Nakagawa et al, 2016 ; Lam and Fujimoto, 2019 ; Trujillo-León et al, 2020 ) or walker/rollator (see reviews in ( Martins et al, 2012 , 2015 ; Werner et al, 2016 )). Robotic walking aids have been designed to aid balance through a variety of methods such as providing mechanical support during falls ( Hirata et al, 2006 ; Suzuki et al, 2009 ; Mou et al, 2012 ; Geravand et al, 2015 ; Di et al, 2016 ; Lam and Fujimoto, 2019 ), preventing risky postures ( Nakagawa et al, 2016 ), or providing a proprioceptive cue ( Stramel et al, 2019 ), but it is unclear which strategies are most intuitive and beneficial to the user.…”