抄録
This paper introduces a cooperative control algorithm that designs a stable biped walk satisfying a wearer's intention relating to his/her walk such as a timing to start and stop walking, walking speed and waking direction so on, so that an exoskeletal walking support system could provide a comfortable support to a paraplegia patient. At first, a pair of gloves with several DOFs is developed to convey a wearer's intention to the walking support system. He/she swings both his/her index fingers to simulate foot motions of his/her walking. The amplitude of the swing corresponds to a step length of the walk and pronation/supination of the wrist joint of his/her right arm corresponds to a walk direction. The cooperative control algorithm based on a cart-table model designs trajectories of each joint for stable walking pattern that satisfies the intention expressed by the wearer's hand motion and then the designed walking pattern is executed in realtime by the walking support system. As the first trial, a small humanoid robot "HRP-2m" is used for safety as a control target that will be a combination of a wearer and the walking support system in the final situation. Through some experiments we confirm that our proposed algorithm enables the humanoid robot to start and stop stable walk with variable step length in the desired walking direction according to operator's intentions.
