Control of intelligent cane robot considering usage of ordinary cane

Abstract

Intelligent cane is a robot developed for assisting the elderly or handicapped people in walking. As a nursing-care device, the cane robot is designed to assist the elderly or handicapped people not only in indoor environments but also in outdoor environments. Therefore the cane robot is required to be smaller and lighter. In addition, it is preferred that the cane robot is movable in omni-directions so that it can be used in various situations. A concept called “intentional direction (ITD)” was proposed to estimate the user's walking intention by analyzing signals from a 6-axis force/torque sensor fixed to the handle of the aluminum stick. Admittance control method was applied to the motion control of the cane robot. In this paper, a new algorithm based on the usage and purpose of an ordinary cane is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, the cane robot is appropriately stopped to support the elderly more effectively. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through the experiments.