KR101611474B1 - Walking System - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a walking system comprising a walk assisting device coupled with the leg of a user using the walking system; one or more sensors measuring movement of the arm of the user using the walking system; and a controller controlling movement of the walk assisting device according to information measured in the sensors. According to the walking system, a disabled person with paralyzed legs can move on a rough place, stairs or the like without using a complex walk control algorithm by an equilibrium sense and an exercise learning ability.

Description

{Walking System}

Disclosure is generally directed to a walking system, particularly to a walking system for persons with paraplegia.

Herein, the background art relating to the present disclosure is provided, and these are not necessarily meant to be known arts.

Various methods have been developed to control the motion of the walking aids in a walking system to assist the disabled in the paraplegic.

1 is directed to the gait system described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013-0197408.

The walking system shown in Fig. 1 includes a walking aid 10 to be worn on the ground, and a clutch 20 mounted on an arm for balancing the body during standing and walking. And the tread of the body of the wearer is sensed and the walking aids 10 are moved. This means that the operation is limited, but it is possible that the disabled person can walk. For convenience of explanation, reference numerals have been newly given.

The gait system described in Fig. 2 is related to the gait system disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 7,153,242.

The walking system shown in Fig. 2 includes a walking assistant 30 to be worn on the base and a sensor attached to the body 40. When the sensor attached to the body 40 measures the inclination of the body and the body is tilted forward, the walking aid moves forward. For convenience of explanation, reference numerals have been newly given.

In addition, there is a gait system in which the sensor attached to the skin measures the fine movement of the lower limb muscles to control the movement of the external gait.

However, the walking system described in Fig. 1 has a problem in that it can not move the stairs due to an irregular shape because it can not freely walk on the rudder and can not arbitrarily determine the wake-up because the operation is limited, The system also has a problem that its operation is limited. In addition, in the case of using the sensor attached to the skin, it can not be used for patients who can not move the leg muscles at all by the paraplegia, and the sensor attached to the skin is also inferior in the measurement stability such as falling into sweat.

The present disclosure relates to a walking system for solving the above problems.

This will be described later in the Specification for Enforcement of the Invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Herein, a general summary of the present disclosure is provided, which should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. of its features).

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a walking aid that is coupled to the base; One or more sensors for measuring arm motion; And a controller for controlling the movement of the walking aid according to the information measured by the sensor.

This will be described later in the Specification for Enforcement of the Invention.

1 is a diagram of a walking system described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013-0197408,
FIG. 2 is a view of the walking system disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 7,153,242,
FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams for explaining the principle of the gait control algorithm in the present disclosure; FIG.
5 is a diagram illustrating a walking system according to the present disclosure,
6 is a view for explaining the degree of freedom of the walking aids,
7 is a view for explaining the degree of freedom of the walking aids,
8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a walking system in accordance with the present disclosure;
Fig. 9 is a view showing an example of the walking system shown in Fig. 8 worn by a user of the walking system. Fig.

The present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The first problem of the conventional gait system is that it can not determine the position of floor shape, forward recognition, and foot position in real time. Second, there is no gait control algorithm that enables stable walking in rough conditions. The present disclosure addresses two problems of the prior art. In order to solve the first problem of the conventional gait system, the present invention uses the viewpoint of the disabled person to recognize the surrounding environment and determine the position of the foot. To solve the second problem, we use the equilibrium sense and exercise learning function of the paralyzed disabled person, and control the movement of the walking aids by measuring the arm motion of the paralyzed disabled person.

3 and 4 are diagrams for explaining the principle of the gait control algorithm in the present disclosure.

In FIG. 3, the disabled person is in a wheelchair, but he or she is holding the front wheel and holding the center by using only the rear wheel. This is because the cerebellum or the like, which is responsible for movement and posture control of the paraplegic disabled person, receives the posture signal from the vestibular organ 100 and the time 110 and then outputs a control signal 120 for centering the posture signal to the arm 130 And the arm 130 moves according to the control signal 120 to adjust the wheel 140 so as to center it. In order to concentrate on this, it is necessary to practice at first, but it is possible to do this by human equilibrium sense and motor learning ability.

In Fig. 4, a gymnast is standing in the water and walking. This is because the cerebellum or the like, which is responsible for the movement and posture control of the gymnast, receives the posture signal from the vestibular organ 100, the time 110 and the pressure distribution applied to the palm, and then outputs a control signal 120 Is transmitted to the muscles of the arm 130 and the arm 130 moves according to the control signal 120 so that the gymnast is centered and walks. Compared with Fig. 3, the pressure distribution applied to the palm as an attitude signal was added. In FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the vestibular organs, the visual and palm pressure distributions are exemplified as main attitude signals, but the force applied to each part of the body can also be used as an attitude signal for measuring the attitude. Walking in a wheelchair is practiced at first as if riding a wheelchair with the front wheel in Fig. 3, but it is made possible by human equilibrium sense and motor learning ability. In the gait system of the present disclosure, a part or all of the gait control algorithm that controls the gait controller so that the disabled person can stably walk even in a complicated environment such as a rough or irregular staircase can be replaced with a human equilibrium sense and exercise learning ability, Can be made stable and simple.

5 is a view for explaining a walking system according to the present disclosure;

The gait system 200 according to the present disclosure includes a sensor 220 that measures the motion of the arm 210, a walking aid 230, and a controller 240. The walking aids 230 are indicated by dotted lines to distinguish them from the wearer's underarms.

The operation principle of the walking system 200 according to the present disclosure is as follows. First, an attitude signal is generated from the pressure distribution applied to the sole of the vestibular organ 250, the visual field 251, or when the soles of the foot of the disabled person are alive. The cerebellum or the like receiving the posture signal then sends the control signal 260 to the arm 210. Thereafter, the arm 210 moves according to the control signal 260, and the sensor 220 measures the movement and the pattern of each joint in which the arm 210 moves, and sends the motion information of the arm 210 to the controller 240. The controller 240 then generates a control signal 270 via an appropriate conversion function and transmits the control signal 270 to the walking aids 230. It is both wireless and wired to send information from the sensor 220 to the controller 240 and to send the control signal 270 from the controller 240 to the walking aids 230. For convenience of the wearer, it is preferable to send them by radio. A commercially available wireless communication method such as Bluetooth or ZigBee is available as a method of sending information and signals wirelessly. The walker 230 then controls each joint of the walker 230 according to the control signal 270 received from the controller 240 so that the wearer of the walker 230 can walk centering or walking. For example, the control signal 270 generated from the controller 240 according to the movement of the shoulder joint 211, the elbow joint 212 and the wrist joint 213 of the user of the walking system 200 is transmitted to the hip joint 230 of the walking aids 230 (231), the knee joint (232), and the ankle joint (233). The movement of the shoulder joint 211 controls the movement of the hip joint 231 and the movement of the elbow joint 212 controls the movement of the knee joint 232 and the movement of the wrist joint 213 is the movement of the ankle joint 233 Can be controlled. Also, if you set the transform function inherent in the controller so that the right leg of the walking aids goes forward when the right arm goes forward, the initial learning speed can be fast because it is intuitive. However, walking on the walk can be awkward, which can hinder practical use. In determining the transformation function inherent to the controller related to the walking, the right leg of the walking aids can be moved backward when the right arm goes forward, and the rotation of the elbow joints is not corresponding to the rotation of the knee joints of the walking aids , A transformation function that moves each joint of the walking aids according to time can be determined so that the arm motion at the time of natural walking corresponds to the leg motion of the walking aids.

The motion of the arm 210 of the user of the gait system 200 in the gait system 200 according to the present disclosure is controlled to control the motion of the gait 230 by directly controlling the leg muscles of the cerebellum, , It is necessary to measure and analyze the movement of the arm 210, unlike the case where the cerebellum directly controls the arm muscles, but these operations are performed electrically, So that the implementation of the walking is not hindered.

The gait system 200 according to the present disclosure may be configured to directly control the walking aids 230 according to the movement of the arm 210 of the user of the gait system 200 and to control the walking aids 230 using the inertial sensors Automatic control is possible. The reason why the automatic control is required is that the arm 210 related to the direct control must perform other operations not related to the direct control or to enhance the control stability. Although a person can not control the heartbeat intentionally, the respiration of the lungs is not only unconsciously performed autonomously, but may also stop or deeply breathe. The walking system 200 according to the present disclosure can directly control the walking aid 230 by the movement of the arm 210 when walking on a rug, So as to be able to stand in the center. When the arm 210 is accidentally moved due to disturbance or the like, the automatic control algorithm inherent in the controller 240 for analyzing the movement of the arm 210 discriminates it, instantly switches from the direct control to the automatic control, 230). That is, the controller 240 includes a direct control mode for controlling the movement of the walking aid 230 by the movement of the arm 210 and an automatic control mode for controlling the movement of the walking aid 230 regardless of the movement of the arm 210. [ . The change of the direct control mode and the automatic control mode may be performed by the user of the walking system 200 or may be automatically performed by the automatic control algorithm. The switching between the direct control mode and the automatic control mode can be performed through the specific operation of the user of the walking system 200. [ For example, it is possible to switch between the direct control mode and the automatic control mode by rapidly rotating both lower arms in opposite directions. Also, the controller 240 may operate in the direct control mode and the automatic control mode, respectively, but both modes may operate simultaneously. For example, the direct control mode of the controller 240 controls the hip joint 231 and the knee joint 232 of the walking aids 230, but the ankle joint 233 can be controlled by the automatic control mode of the controller. Also, the controller 240 is illustrated as being external in FIG. 5, but may also be embedded in the walking aids 230.

The walking aids 230 for implementing the walking system 200 include a hip flexion / extension, a hip abduction / adduction movement for the hip joint 231 for each leg, Ankle plantar flexion / dorsiflexion Ankle joint 233 has one degree of freedom with Knee flexion / extension and the knee joint 132 has an ankle plantar flexion / And Ankle rotation, so that a total of 7 degrees of freedom may be provided. However, the degree of freedom may be reduced to simplify the mechanism. For example, as in a general humanoid, the degree of freedom of the ankle joint is moved forward and backward, and the two degrees of freedom with movement to the left and right, or the degree of freedom of the ankle joint is omitted, A hip joint 3 degrees of freedom, and a knee joint 1 degree of freedom). On the other hand, it is possible to further enhance the mechanism to add degrees of freedom to the toe portion 300 as shown in FIG. However, the configuration of the walking aids 230 for implementing the walking system 200 is not limited to the above description, and is included in the scope of the present disclosure for implementing the present disclosure.

The sensor 220 for implementing the walking system 200 is preferably positioned for each joint so as to measure the movement of each joint of the arm 210 of the user of the walking system 20. [ The sensor 220 may be directly attached to each joint of the user as shown in FIG. 5, or may be worn by a user with a measuring instrument having an external sensor attached thereto. The wearing of the measuring instrument is described in Fig. The sensor 220 is preferably at least one of an encoder, a potentiometer, a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor, or a magnetic sensor. However, the sensor 220 for implementing the walking system 200 is not limited to the above contents, but is included in the scope of the present disclosure for implementing the present disclosure.

8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a walking system in accordance with the present disclosure;

One example of a walking system 400 according to the present disclosure is adapted to be worn by a person with lower limb paralysis and includes a measuring instrument 420 with a sensor 410 for measuring the arm motion of a user of the walking system 400, (430), and a controller (440).

The sensor 410 attached to the measuring instrument 420 for measuring the movement of the arm of the user of the walking system 400 includes a sensor 411 for measuring the upward and downward movement angles of the shoulder joints, A sensor 413 for measuring the angle of motion of the shoulder joint, a sensor 414 for measuring the angle of the upper arm rotation connecting the shoulder joint and the elbow joint, a sensor 415 for measuring the angle of motion of the elbow joint, A sensor 416 for measuring the rotational angle of the lower arm connecting the elbow joint and the wrist joint, a sensor 417 for measuring the left and right motion angles of the wrist joint, and a sensor 418 for measuring the up and down motion angles of the wrist joint . That is, the measuring instrument 420 of the gait system 400 according to the present disclosure includes sensors for measuring shoulder joint 4 degrees of freedom, elbow joint 1 degree of freedom, and wrist joint 3 degrees of freedom. Since the user of the walking system 400 wears the measuring instrument 420, miniaturization / simplification is required for the convenience of the user. In order to miniaturize / simplify the measuring instrument 420, the rotation axes of the upper arm and the lower arm of the measurement instrument 420 are installed outside the user's arm which is distant from the actual rotation position of the upper arm and lower arm of the user, The measuring mechanism 420 includes a ball spline 419 so that the joint position of the measuring mechanism 420 and the arm joint position of the user of the walking system 400 are not shifted. The ball spline 419 serves to absorb the change in the longitudinal direction while transmitting the rotational motion as it is. The measurement instrument 420 included in the gait system 400 of FIG. 8 can measure eight degrees of freedom of the arm of the user of the gait system 400, but can measure the degree of freedom of the gait assistant 420 controlled by the motion of the arm It is possible to measure only the part requiring measurement. For example, a sensor 412 for measuring the forward and backward movement angle of the shoulder joint, a sensor 413 for measuring the left and right movement angle of the shoulder joint, a sensor 415 for measuring the movement of the elbow joint, The three degrees of freedom of the hip joint and the degree of freedom of the knee joint of the walking aids 430 can be controlled by using four sensors 416. [

The walking aids 430 include actuators 431, 432, 433, 434, 435, 436 for moving the respective joints of the walking aids 430. That is, the walking aiding device 430 includes a hip joint rotating actuator 431, a hip joint front and back motion actuator 432, a hip joint left and right motion actuator 433, a knee joint front and back motion actuator 434, An ankle joint front and rear movement actuator 435, and an ankle joint left and right motion actuators 436. [ An actuator may be inserted into the toe joint 437 of the walking aid 430. However, since the structure of the walking aid 430 is complicated, a rotating spring, a flat spring or the like may be provided to enable manual rotation by the user's body weight. The walking aids 430 can move in the hip joint 3 degrees of freedom, the knee joint 1 degree of freedom, and the ankle joint 2 freedom degree. Since the user of the walking system 400 wears the walking aid 430, it is necessary to downsize / simplify the user's convenience. In order to miniaturize / simplify the walking aids 430, the rotational degrees of freedom of the ankle joints, which are relatively less important in the general walking, are excluded, and the hip joint rotary actuators 431 of the walking aids 430, And the back waist support 438 is separated from the back waist support 438.

The controller 440 is installed in the waist support 438 of the walking aid 430.

In addition, the walking system 400 according to the present disclosure may further include an inertial sensor or a tilt sensor 450 for measuring the inclination of the upper body of the user of the walking system 400. Compared to the gait system 200 shown in FIG. 5, an inertial sensor or tilt sensor 450, which measures movement of the upper body other than the arm, is added to further improve the balance sense and exercise learning ability of the user of the gait system 400 You can reflect well. For example, by adding the sensor 450 for measuring the inclination of the upper body, the inclination information of the upper body can be utilized for the control of the walking aid 430 in addition to the arm motion information of the user.

Since the walking system 400 matches the arm motion pattern and the leg motion pattern, the active freedom of the walking aids 430 and the arm motion measurement freedom do not need to match, and the degree of freedom of arm motion measurement may be more or less.

9 is a view showing an example of a walking system 400 according to the present invention worn by a user of the walking system 400. Fig.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below.

(1) a walking aid coupled to the undergarment; One or more sensors for measuring arm motion; And a controller for controlling the movement of the walking aid according to the information measured by the sensor.

(2) The walking aids have a hip flexion / extension (Hip abduction / adduction) with two degrees of freedom hip joint and one knee joint with front and back (Knee flexion / extension) Wherein the walking system comprises:

And (3) a degree of freedom in which the hip joint rotates (Hip rotation).

(4) The walking system has an ankle plantar flexion / dorsiflexion ankle joint moving forward and backward.

(5) The walking system has an ankle joint having an additional degree of freedom of movement in inversion and eversion.

(6) The walking system has an ankle joint having an additional degree of freedom of movement due to adduction and abduction.

(7) A walking system, wherein the sensor for measuring the movement of the arm measures at least one of movement of the shoulder joint, the upper arm, the elbow joint, the lower arm, and the wrist joint.

(8) The gait system, wherein the movement of the shoulder joint controls the movement of the hip joint, the movement of the elbow joint controls the movement of the knee joint, and the movement of the wrist joint controls the movement of the ankle joint.

(9) The walking system according to claim 1, wherein the movement pattern on the space of the arm measured by the sensor corresponds to the movement pattern on the space of the walking aid.

(10) The walking system as set forth in any of the preceding claims, wherein the sensor for measuring arm motion is at least one of an encoder, a potentiometer, a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor, or a magnetic sensor.

(11) The walking system according to any one of (1) to (9), wherein the controller has a direct control mode for controlling the walking aids according to sensor information measuring the movement of the arms and an automatic control mode for controlling the walking aids regardless of the movement of the arms.

(12) The walking system according to any one of (1) to (8), wherein a transition is made between a direct control mode and an automatic control mode of the controller according to a specific action of the user.

(13) The walking system according to any one of (1) to (3), wherein the specific action of the user of the walking system is the action of rotating both lower arms of the user in opposite directions.

(14) A walking system, wherein the direct control mode of the controller is automatically switched to the automatic control mode by an automatic control algorithm.

(15) The walking system according to any one of (1) to (5), wherein a part of the joints of the walking aids are directly controlled and some are simultaneously controlled in an automatic control mode.

(16) a sensor for measuring the movement of the upper body part other than the arm.

(17) The walking system as claimed in any one of the above claims, wherein the sensor for measuring the movement of the upper body part other than the arm is a sensor for measuring the inclination of the upper body or an inertial sensor.

According to the gait system of the present disclosure, the paralyzed disabled can move unrestrictedly without any complicated gait control algorithm through equilibrium sense and exercise learning ability.

According to the gait system of the present disclosure, a complicated gait control algorithm is not required, and only the controller needs to have a conversion function that corresponds to the movement of the arm relative to the motion of the walking aids. Therefore, the controller can be simplified, The specific behavior learned by the wearer's exercise learning ability of the walk controller can be immediately reflected to the walk controller.

200, 400: Walking system
210: arm of the user of the walking system
220, 410: Measuring arm motion of the user of the walking system
450: Upper body inclination sensor of walking system user
230, 430: Walking aids
240, 440: a controller

Claims (17)

A walking aid coupled to the base of the user of the walking system;
One or more sensors for measuring arm movement and arm movement patterns of a user of the walking system; And,
And a controller for controlling the movement of the walking aid according to the information measured from the sensor,
The sensor for measuring arm motion and arm motion pattern measures at least one movement of the shoulder joint, the upper arm, the elbow joint, the lower arm, and the wrist joint, and the movement of the measured shoulder joint is measured by a controller, Wherein the measured movement of the elbow joint controls the movement of the knee joint of the walking aids and the movement of the measured wrist joints controls the movement of the ankle joint of the walking aids. The method according to claim 1,
The walking aids are characterized by a hip flexion / extension (Hip abduction / adduction) with two degrees of freedom hip joint and one knee joint with front and back movement (Knee flexion / extension) A walking system. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the walking system further has a degree of freedom of hip rotation of the walking aids. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the walking aid has an ankle plantar flexion / dorsiflexion ankle joint. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the walking aids have an ankle joint having an additional degree of freedom of movement in inversion / eversion. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the walking aids have an ankle joint with additional degrees of freedom of movement due to adduction and abduction. delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the movement pattern on the space of the arm measured by the sensor corresponds to the movement pattern on the space of the walking aiding device in a one-to-one correspondence. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the sensor for measuring the movement of the arm is at least one of an encoder, a potentiometer, a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor or a magnetic sensor. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the controller has a direct control mode for controlling the walking aids according to the sensor information measuring the movement of the arms and an automatic control mode for controlling the walking aids regardless of the movement of the arms. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the switching between the direct control mode and the automatic control mode of the controller is performed by a specific action of the user of the walking system. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the specific behavior of the user of the gait system is an action of rotating both lower arms of the user in opposite directions. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the direct control mode of the controller is automatically switched to the automatic control mode by the automatic control algorithm. The method of claim 11,
Wherein some of the joints of the walking aids are controlled in a direct control mode and some of them are simultaneously controlled in an automatic control mode. The method according to claim 1,
And a sensor for measuring the movement of the upper body part other than the arms of the user of the walking system. 18. The method of claim 16,
Wherein the sensor for measuring the movement of the upper body part other than the arm is a sensor for measuring the inclination of the upper body or an inertial sensor.

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