Development and experimental evaluation of a walking assist device using a cane movement as input

Abstract

In today's aging society, a variety of walking aids have been developed for the elderly or those who have difficulty walking due to injury. The main type of walking aids used in daily life are inexpensive simple walking aids such as canes, etc. Simple walking aids are used to reduce the load on the legs by placing a part of the body weight on the cane or walker. If the user relies on these devices, the user's posture when walking may become unsteady, and a load different from the original walking may be applied to the user. For the reason, the development of products with simple structures is desired to reduce the cost of equipment for the widespread use of welfare machines. Therefore, in this research, authors developed an inexpensive and lightweight walking aid using a link mechanism that does not require electronic control. The purpose of this research is to develop a walking aid for dynamic gait that can be used by more people. The device does not require electronic control, and the user drives the device with his/her own arm movements. The device is a planar four-bar mechanism that converts rotational motion into oscillatory motion to improve the transmission of force. An experimental comparison was made between a device with a planar six-bar mechanism, which was the subject of a previous study, and a device with a planar four-bar mechanism, in which the mechanism constants were changed.