| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北科技大學 === 機電整合研究所 === 98 === Aging society has become an important issue in recent times. Because the number of elderly people is constantly on the rise, walking support systems have gained increasing relevance. Walking support systems can assist elderly people in their daily activities, allowing them to regain their independence and improve the quality of their lives. The most common walking support systems include crutches, walkers, and canes. Crutches are usually used as supports by patients who suffer from lower limb problems when they walk for long distances. People who have recently suffered from other physical problems and have difficulties in walking may use walkers or canes to assist them in walking. Such aids are usually used for maintaining body balance, walk training, supporting body weight, and increasing the muscle strength of the lower limbs. Moreover, there are canes available for visually impaired people to help them detect road conditions while walking. Although traditional walking support systems are usually used to solve the mobility problems of the elderly, these devices are considered passive, and their actions strictly depend on the forces/torques applied to them by the user. Therefore, to use traditional walking support systems, the other physical functions of the users of these systems must be fully working; for example, the users must have sufficient cognitive function, good vision, judgment, and endurance. These conditions are difficult to conform to because these functions degrade by aging. The objective of this study is to design and realize a robotic cane that is based on autonomous mobile robot technologies. In this study, we also develop a biaxial force-sensing device for the robotic cane. This device detects the manner in which a user exerts force on the handgrip of the cane in order to estimate the direction in and the speed at which the user wants to move the robotic cane. This enables the device to select a motion path in advance. After selecting the motion path, a motion controller generates commands and uses them to control the mobile platform of the robotic cane in order to easily attain the speeds and routes corresponding to the user requirements. This paper reports on the performance of the basic motion control of the robotic cane.
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