Guidance and Obstacle Avoidance for Passive Robot Walking Helper

• Main Authors: Huang, Yi-Che, 黃一哲
• Other Authors: Yonug, Kuu-Young
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/44656941468673290458

博士 === 國立交通大學 === 電控工程研究所 === 101 === Nowadays, the problem of aging population becomes much more serious. How to take good care of the elderly is now an important issue around the world. Robots can play an important role in being able to provide functional mobility to elderly. And, various kinds of robot walking helpers have been developed. For the safety concern and rehabilitation, the passive types of robot walking helpers come forward. For practical applications, it is crucial for them to effectively guide the user to the desired target with accurate orientation. For the passive robot walking helper, this dissertation proposes schemes of guidance and obstacle avoidance approaches, including passive guidance, guidance with obstacle avoidance and slope guidance. The passive guidance approach can guide the user to the desired target with accurate orientation in the known environment. The guidance law with obstacle avoidance integrates the obstacle avoidance strategy with that of the passive guidance to guide the user not only to avoid obstacles, but also to the desired target. The slope guidance not only achieves what of passive guidance is capable of, but also reduces the user's burden when the user walks uphill in the outdoor environment. The proposed schemes are realized in the i-Go, the passive robot walking helper developed in our laboratory.