title: Tandem Stance Avoidance Using Adaptive and Asymmetric Admittance Control for Fall Prevention.
abstract: Fall prevention is one of the most important functions of walking assistance devices for user's safety. It is preferable that these devices prevent the user from being in the state where the risk of falling is high rather than helping them recovering from falling motion. During turning, when the user is in the tandem stance, a state where both legs form a line along walking direction, a support base that is surrounded by two legs becomes small, and a stability margin becomes small. This paper therefore aims to prevent the tandem stance by using nonwearable robot "intelligent cane" for the elderly or physically challenged person. Generally, the behavior of the lower limb follows the upper body turning. This paper therefore introduces a cane robot control method which constrains the behavior of user's upper body. By adjusting an admittance parameter of the robot according to the positions of a support leg, the robot resists to turn while a support leg is on the same side of the turning direction. A swing leg on the turning direction side therefore freely moves to the turning direction, while a swing leg on the opposite direction side of turning hardly move to the turning direction.
authors.forename: Shotaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Yasuhisa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukuda
authors.forename: Izumi
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanimoto
authors.forename: Pei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Di
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002183:Canes; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D000067190:Exoskeleton Device; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D008954:Models, Biological; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014110:Touch; D016138:Walking