WALKING ASSIST DEVICE, WALKING ASSIST METHOD, WALKING STATE ESTIMATING DEVICE AND WALKING STATE ESTIMATING METHOD
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A walking assist device, comprising:
- a first attachment to be attached to the upper body of a human being;
a pair of second attachments, each of which is to be attached to the right and left thighs, respectively, of the human being;
a pair of actuators;
a right hip joint angle sensor adapted to output a signal based on a right hip joint angle of the human being and a left hip joint angle sensor adapted to output a signal based on a left hip joint angle of the human being; and
a control unit adapted to control the operation of each of the pair of actuators on the basis of at least output signals of the right hip joint angle sensor and the left hip joint angle sensor,wherein each of the pair of the second attachments is moved relative to the first attachment by operating each of the pair of the actuators, thereby assisting the walking motion of the human being, which involves relative cyclic motions of the right and left thighs with respect to the upper body, andthe control unit is adapted to control the magnitude of the movement amplitudes of the pair of the actuators for assisting each of a bending motion and a stretching motion of the right thigh and a bending motion and a stretching motion of the left thigh of the human being on the basis of the magnitude of the value of each of a right bending coefficient, a right stretching coefficient, a left bending coefficient and a left stretching coefficient, and comprises;
an asymmetry evaluating unit adapted to evaluate the degree of asymmetry between a right motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicating the time-dependent change form of an output of the right hip joint angle sensor, and a left motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicating the time-dependent change form of an output of the left hip joint angle sensor; and
an adjusting unit adapted to adjust the value of at least one of the right bending coefficient, the right stretching coefficient, the left bending coefficient and the left stretching coefficient so as to reduce the degree of asymmetry evaluated by the asymmetry evaluating unit.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A walking assist device evaluates the degree of asymmetry between a left motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicative of the time-dependent change form of an output of a left hip joint angle sensor, and a right motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicative of the time-dependent change form of an output of a right hip joint angle sensor. In order to reduce the degree of asymmetry, the value of at least one of a left bending coefficient, a left stretching coefficient, a right bending coefficient, and a right stretching coefficient is adjusted.
23 Citations
14 Claims
-
1. A walking assist device, comprising:
-
a first attachment to be attached to the upper body of a human being; a pair of second attachments, each of which is to be attached to the right and left thighs, respectively, of the human being; a pair of actuators; a right hip joint angle sensor adapted to output a signal based on a right hip joint angle of the human being and a left hip joint angle sensor adapted to output a signal based on a left hip joint angle of the human being; and a control unit adapted to control the operation of each of the pair of actuators on the basis of at least output signals of the right hip joint angle sensor and the left hip joint angle sensor, wherein each of the pair of the second attachments is moved relative to the first attachment by operating each of the pair of the actuators, thereby assisting the walking motion of the human being, which involves relative cyclic motions of the right and left thighs with respect to the upper body, and the control unit is adapted to control the magnitude of the movement amplitudes of the pair of the actuators for assisting each of a bending motion and a stretching motion of the right thigh and a bending motion and a stretching motion of the left thigh of the human being on the basis of the magnitude of the value of each of a right bending coefficient, a right stretching coefficient, a left bending coefficient and a left stretching coefficient, and comprises; an asymmetry evaluating unit adapted to evaluate the degree of asymmetry between a right motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicating the time-dependent change form of an output of the right hip joint angle sensor, and a left motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicating the time-dependent change form of an output of the left hip joint angle sensor; and an adjusting unit adapted to adjust the value of at least one of the right bending coefficient, the right stretching coefficient, the left bending coefficient and the left stretching coefficient so as to reduce the degree of asymmetry evaluated by the asymmetry evaluating unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A walking assist device comprising:
-
a first attachment to be attached to the upper body of a human being; a pair of second attachments, each of which is to be attached to the right and left thighs, respectively, of the human being; a pair of actuators; a right hip joint angle sensor adapted to output a signal based on a right hip joint angle of the human being and a left hip joint angle sensor adapted to output a signal based on a left hip joint angle of the human being; and a control unit adapted to control the operation of each of the pair of actuators on the basis of at least output signals of the right hip joint angle sensor and the left hip joint angle sensor, each of the pair of the second attachments being moved relative to the first attachment by operating each of the pair of the actuators, thereby assisting the walking motion of the human being, which involves relative cyclic motions of the right and left thighs with respect to the upper body, the walking assist device further comprising; a walking state estimating device which determines a basic frequency by using a differential oscillator, which is a waveform signal obtained by sampling the difference between the right and left hip joint angles or shoulder joint angles of the human being through the right hip joint angle sensor and the left hip joint angle sensor over a specified period of time, wherein the control unit is adapted to control cyclic operations of the actuators on the basis of a cycle established according to the basic frequency determined by the walking state estimating device, the walking state estimating device comprises; a window processing unit adapted to execute window processing for windowing the differential oscillator; a frequency analysis processing unit adapted to acquire a power spectrum by carrying out a frequency analysis on the windowed differential oscillator; and a spectrum analysis processing unit adapted to determine, as the basic frequency, a frequency exhibiting a peak which has a height equal to or greater than a threshold value and which is positioned in a lowest frequency band of the power spectrum, the window processing unit being adapted to set the width of the window of a current cycle according to a decreasing function, which has the basic frequency as a variable, on the basis of a previous basic frequency determined by the spectrum analysis processing unit.
-
-
9. A walking assist method for assisting a walking motion of a human being, which involves relative cyclic motions of right and left thighs with respect to an upper body by moving each of a pair of second attachments to be attached to the right and left thighs, respectively, of the human being in relation to a first attachment to be attached to the upper body of the human being by operating each of a pair of actuators, the walking assist method comprising:
-
a step of controlling the magnitude of the motional amplitude of each of the pair of actuators for assisting a bending motion and a stretching motion of a right thigh of the human being and a bending motion and a stretching motion of a left thigh of the human being on the basis of the magnitude of the value of each of a right bending coefficient, a right stretching coefficient, a left bending coefficient, and a left stretching coefficient; a step of evaluating the degree of asymmetry between a right motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicating a time-dependent change form of a right hip joint angle of the human being, and a left motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicating a time-dependent change form of a left hip joint angle of the human being; and a step of adjusting the value of at least one of the right bending coefficient, the right stretching coefficient, the left bending coefficient, and the left stretching coefficient so as to reduce the degree of asymmetry.
-
-
10. A walking assist method for assisting a walking motion of a human being, which involves relative cyclic motions of right and left thighs with respect to an upper body by moving each of a pair of second attachments to be attached to the right and left thighs, respectively, of the human being in relation to a first attachment to be attached to the upper body of the human being by operating each of a pair of actuators, the walking assist method comprising:
-
a step of estimating a walking state, which determines a basic frequency, by using a differential oscillator, which is a waveform signal obtained by sampling a difference between the right and left hip joint angles or shoulder joint angles of the human being over a specified period of time; and a step of controlling cyclic operations of the actuators according to a cycle established on the basis of the basic frequency; wherein the step of estimating a walking state includes; a step of executing window processing for windowing the differential oscillator in the walking state estimating step; a step of acquiring a power spectrum by carrying out a frequency analysis on the windowed differential oscillator; and a step of determining, as the basic frequency, a frequency exhibiting a peak which has a height equal to or greater than a threshold value and which is positioned in a lowest frequency band of the power spectrum, and wherein the window processing step is a step of setting the width of the window for a current cycle according to a decreasing function, which has the basic frequency as a variable, on the basis of the basic frequency of a previous cycle.
-
-
11. A walking state estimating device comprising:
-
a window processing unit adapted to execute window processing for windowing a differential oscillator, which is a waveform signal obtained by sampling, over a specified period of time, the differences between the right and left hip joint angles or shoulder joint angles of the human being while he or she is walking; a frequency analysis processing unit adapted to acquire a power spectrum by carrying out a frequency analysis on the windowed differential oscillator; and a spectrum analysis processing unit adapted to determine a basic frequency exhibiting a peak which has a height equal to or greater than a threshold value and which is positioned in a lowest frequency band of the power spectrum, wherein the window processing unit is adapted to set the width of the window for a current cycle according to a decreasing function, which has the basic frequency as a variable, on the basis of a basic frequency in a previous cycle determined by the spectrum analysis processing unit. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
-
-
14. A walking state estimating method, comprising:
-
a step of executing window processing for windowing a differential oscillator, which is a waveform signal obtained by sampling, over a specified period of time, the differences between the right and left hip joint angles or shoulder joint angles of the human being while he or she is walking; a step of acquiring a power spectrum by carrying out a frequency analysis on the windowed differential oscillator; and a spectrum analysis processing step of determining a basic frequency exhibiting a peak which has a height equal to or greater than a threshold value and which is positioned in a lowest frequency band of the power spectrum, wherein the window processing step comprises a step of setting the width of the window for a current cycle according to a decreasing function, which has the basic frequency as a variable, on the basis of a basic frequency in a previous cycle determined by the spectrum analysis processing step.
-
Specification