A PAWL for Enhancing Strength and Endurance during Walking Using Interaction Force and

摘要

PAWL (power assist walking leg) represents a high integration of robotics, information technology, communication, control engineering, signal processing and etc. Today, trends in robotics research are changing from industrial applications to non-industrial applications, such as service robots, medical robots, humanoid robots, personal robots and so on. Human ability to perform physical tasks is limited not only by intelligence, but also by physical strength (Kazerooni, 1990). Our research on robot is using mechanism to augment human muscle and capability of sense during walking; synchronously, it can hold human agility and sense of direct operation. The primary task of this project is to develop a power assist walking support leg (shown in Fig.1) which not only amplifies strength of human legs and enhances endurance during walking, but also reduces user inner force. Power assist system has many potential applications. It can be designed for care-worker, elderly people, nurse,