Devices such as canes and wheelchairs, used to assist locomotion, have remained mostly unchanged for centuries. Recent advances in robotics have the potential to develop smart versions of these devices that can offer better support and living conditions to their users. This is the underlying objective of this project. The existing devices, used during recovery and rehabilitation phases where gait stability is key, are often bulky and cannot be easily migrated from hospital to domestic environments, where maneuvering space tends to be restricted. This article discusses a compact, lightweight and minimally invasive, robotic cane to assist locomotion. The device can assist users with mild locomotion disabilities, e.g., in the final stages of rehabilitation, to maintain and recover their balance in standing and walking situations. This extends previous experiments with alternative control strategies, merged with indicators (based on the Gini index) able to recognize differences between users. Several experiments, with a range of users possessing different mobility impairments, confirm the viability of the robotic cane, with users comfortably using the cane after three minutes, on average, proving its ease of use and low intrusiveness, and with constant support offered during the whole movement. Furthermore, the real-time tuning of the controller gains, via the Gini inequality index, enables adjustment to the user's movement.
Keywords: Full-state feedback; Inertial unit; Lightweight and compact smart cane; Locomotion assistance; Mild locomotion disabilities; Robot cane; Unicycle kinematics.
©2023 Neves et al.