A Method Preventing Backward Falling while Walking with a Wearable Robot

Abstract

In the development of a wearable robot assisting paraplegic walking, prevention of falls is important for practical applications. Considering fall prevention, it will be efficient to measure ground reaction force. We developed a measurement system of ground reaction force which consists of small 3-axis force sensors. Measured data, such as ground reaction force and center of pressure (COP), was applied to fall prevention control. In this paper, we propose a control method to adjust the timing of swing motion besed on zero-moment-point (ZMP) and to support weight shift. We evaluate effectiveness of the proposed method for prevention of falls according to measurement experiments of walking.