Stabilization of Walking Motion with Light Touch Using a Mobile Robot

Stabilizing walking motion is important to avoid unexpected falling for physically weak persons such as elderly. It is known that light touch makes human posture stable. This paper presents the way to realize the effect of light touch to make human walking stable using an omnidirectional mobile robot. The mobile robot has been developed to keep light touch contact to the lower back of the user during walking. In this study, the proper amount of light touch force for lower back and its contact location are investigated at first. Then it is realized by the mobile robot while the user is walking. The effectiveness of the proposed robotic light touch method was evaluated by performing the experiment.