Kinematics Characteristic of Exoskeleton Walking Robot for Older People

Abstract

The movement processes of the older people during walking on level ground were captured by the high-speed video camera with the speed of 500 frames per second. The gait parameters of the older people during walking on level ground were obtained by the quantitative analysis of the successive photographs captured by the high-speed video camera. Kinematics features of the older people during walking on level ground were discussed. Along with the growth of the age, step velocity, step frequency and step length were reduced, and gait cycle was rising. According to the morphology of the older people during walking on level ground, a mechanical model was put forward to aid the design of the exoskeleton walking robot. The couple walking characteristics between the older wearer and the exoskeleton walking robot was studied. In the single support phase of the exoskeleton walking robot, the change of the hip joint was gradually decreased to provide the driving force for the stable walk, the change of the knee joint was increased and following decreased and then increased to forward the older people's body center of gravity, and the change of the ankle joint was gradually increased to reduce the impact force of the ground. The results would provide the basic theory to bionic references for improving the reasonable properties of the exoskeleton walking robot. This work would provide certain theoretical and practical base in developing the exoskeleton walking robot on bionic structural design.