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Smart Walkers: Advanced Robotic Human Walking-Aid Systems

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Book cover Intelligent Assistive Robots

Part of the book series: Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics ((STAR,volume 106))

Abstract

In this book chapter, the authors present the Smart Walkers as robotic functional compensation devices for assisting mobility dysfunctions and empowering the human gait. First, general concepts of locomotion, mobility dysfunctions and assistive devices are presented. A special attention is given to the walkers, considering not only the large number of users, but mainly the rehabilitation and functional compensation potential of empowering the natural mobility. Following, robotic versions of wheeled-walkers for assisting locomotion dysfunctions are presented. In this context, the UFES Smart Walker is presented as an example of a robotic device focused on the user-machine multimodal interaction for obtaining a natural control strategy for the robotic device. Two developments are discussed: (i) an adaptive filtering strategy of the upper-body interaction forces is used in a Fuzzy-Logic based control system to generate navigation commands, and (ii) a robust inverse kinematics controller based on users-motion is presented as a new solution for controlling the Smart Walker motion. Finally, conclusions and future works in the field of walker-assisted gait is presented in the last section.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Engineering Department, Federal University of Espirito Santo, Goiabeiras, Av. Fernando Ferrari 514, 29075-910, Brazil

    Anselmo Frizera Neto, Carlos Cifuentes, Camilo Rodriguez & Teodiano Bastos

  2. Biotechnology Department - RENORBIO, Federal University of Espirito Santo, Av. Fernando Ferrari 514, Goiabeiras, 29075-910, Brazil

    Arlindo Elias & Teodiano Bastos

  3. Institute of Automatics, National University of San Juan, Av. San Martin Oeste 1112, 5400, San Juan, Argentina

    Ricardo Carelli

Authors
  1. Anselmo Frizera Neto
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  2. Arlindo Elias
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  3. Carlos Cifuentes
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  4. Camilo Rodriguez
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  5. Teodiano Bastos
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  6. Ricardo Carelli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anselmo Frizera Neto .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. LiSSi Laboratory, University Paris-Est/UPEC, Vitry-sur-Seine, France

    Samer Mohammed

  2. Bioengineering Group (GBIO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Juan C. Moreno

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering Robotic Systems Control Laboratory, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

    Kyoungchul Kong

  4. LiSSi Laboratory, University Paris-Est/UPEC, Vitry-sur-Seine, France

    Yacine Amirat

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Neto, A.F., Elias, A., Cifuentes, C., Rodriguez, C., Bastos, T., Carelli, R. (2015). Smart Walkers: Advanced Robotic Human Walking-Aid Systems. In: Mohammed, S., Moreno, J., Kong, K., Amirat, Y. (eds) Intelligent Assistive Robots. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 106. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12922-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12922-8_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12921-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12922-8

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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