Development of a stair walking assistive device for the elderly

Abstract

We developed a new stair walking assistive device for the elderly. By utilizing the phenomenon of the stretch reflex of the bi-articular muscle, user can raise his/her foot higher than the normal by only assisting the ankle joint. Then the can climb up stairs easily. On the other hand, to prevent bending the knee joint while climbing down, the wedge effect mechanism which was used multi-thread worm and helical gear was developed. The experimental results can be shown the effectiveness of them.