智慧型把手於助行器之應用

Abstract

由於世界人口快速老年化，老年照顧已成為世界重要議題之一，為減少老年人走路發生跌倒，老年人走路時常用助行器(walker)做輔助，本論文設計一智慧型握把套加裝機構，可以加裝於是市售助行器中，賦予助行器與使用者溝通的智慧，於必要時提供老年人行動的輔助，以達到減少跌倒意外之發生。智慧型握把上裝有力量感測器，借由力量感測器量取使用者的施力，進而分析使用者意圖(human intention )，再利用馬達對原本助行器之煞車機構進行助行器的運動控制，使助行器可以協助使用者轉彎、減速或停止等動作，達到輔助行動不便之使用者、或是虛弱的老年人，跌倒意外的發生。

As population is aging rapidly, elderly care has become one of the most important issues. In order to reduce the occurrence of falling down in elderly walking, assistive walkers are normally used. In this study intelligent handle has been designed and installed to a commercially walker. The intelligent handle enables to the assistive walker to recognize the user’s intention so that timely response to prevent the user from accidental falls. The intelligent handle is equipped by a force sensor to measure the exerted forces/torques by the user and the human intention is then analyzed. Subsequently the walker is under passive control mode, in which the brakes of the walker are controlled by servo motors to provide responsive motion assistance, such as turning, speed deceleration and emergent stop. Preliminary experimental results have shown that the proposed scenarios has the potential to reduce accidental falling down for the elderly.