Intelligent robotic walker with actively controlled human interaction

Abstract

In this study, we developed a robotic walker that actively controls its speed and direction of movement according to the user's gait intention. Sensor fusion between a low-cost light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor and inertia measurement units (IMUs) helps determine the user's gait intention. The LiDAR determines the walking direction by detecting both knees, and the IMUs attached on each foot obtain the angular rate of the gait. The user's gait intention is given as the directional angle and the speed of movement. The two motors in the robotic walker are controlled with these two variables, which represent the user's gait intention. The estimated direction angle is verified by comparison with a Kinect sensor that detects the centroid trajectory of both the user's feet. We validated the robotic walker with an experiment by controlling it using the estimated gait intention.