In this paper, toward robotic gait assistance, we investigate the feasibility of a cane-type assistive mobile robot accompanying the user autonomously through a clinical pilot experiment. As widely known, gait ability is important for all people to keep their quality of life. However, for people having weakened lower limbs such as elderly people, their postural sway during walking could be insuppressible and cause falling. To support the gait motion of elderly people, our group has been developing a series of hand-holding cane robots named Intelligent Cane. Such assistive robots are expected to remove barriers to the independent lives of elderly people. Recently, we have focused on the potential of a companion robot that follows the user ahead and can be touched or grasped for bracing whenever the user needs it. In order to demonstrate proof of our concept through an experiment with a motion capture system, we propose a user companion strategy that enables our cane robot to keep a constant relative distance between the robot and the user walking on a treadmill. We evaluate the accuracy of the user companion in an experiment where a user walks on a treadmill. Then, we conduct a clinical experiment with three healthy subjects walking on with the treadmill with our cane robot as a pilot study. Through the clinical experiment, we evaluate a postural stabilization effect of physical interaction with the robot and discuss the feasibility of our robotic gait assistance methodology.

中文翻译：

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通过与手杖式伴侣机器人的光接触来稳定姿势的临床试验研究

在本文中，针对机器人步态辅助，我们通过临床试验实验研究了甘蔗型辅助移动机器人自主陪伴用户的可行性。众所周知，步态能力对于所有人保持生活质量至关重要。但是，对于老年人等下肢无力的人，走路时的姿势摇摆可能无法抑制并导致跌倒。为了支持老年人的步态运动，我们小组一直在开发一系列名为Intelligent Cane的手持拐杖机器人。这种辅助机器人有望消除阻碍老年人独立生活的障碍。最近，我们集中研究了伴侣机器人的潜力，它可以跟随用户前进，并在用户需要时可以触摸或抓住以支撑。为了通过运动捕捉系统的实验来证明我们的概念，我们提出了一种用户陪伴策略，该策略使我们的甘蔗机器人能够在机器人和在跑步机上行走的用户之间保持恒定的相对距离。我们在用户在跑步机上行走的实验中评估用户同伴的准确性。然后，我们以拐杖机器人为先导，对三个健康受试者在跑步机上行走进行了临床实验。通过临床实验，我们评估了与机器人进行物理交互的姿势稳定效果，并讨论了我们的机器人步态辅助方法的可行性。我们提出了一种用户陪伴策略，使我们的甘蔗机器人能够在机器人和在跑步机上行走的用户之间保持恒定的相对距离。我们在用户在跑步机上行走的实验中评估用户同伴的准确性。然后，我们以拐杖机器人为先导，对三个健康受试者在跑步机上行走进行了临床实验。通过临床实验，我们评估了与机器人进行物理交互的姿势稳定效果，并讨论了我们的机器人步态辅助方法的可行性。我们提出了一种用户陪伴策略，使我们的甘蔗机器人能够在机器人和在跑步机上行走的用户之间保持恒定的相对距离。我们在用户在跑步机上行走的实验中评估用户同伴的准确性。然后，我们以拐杖机器人为先导，对三个健康受试者在跑步机上行走进行了临床实验。通过临床实验，我们评估了与机器人进行物理交互的姿势稳定效果，并讨论了我们的机器人步态辅助方法的可行性。