Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Further research is needed to investigate the stability of the complete human user/ i-
Wa l k e r system and to infer the users stability.
An open topic is the acceptability of this technology. The work in i-Walker is impor-
tant as after the cane is the most commonly used mobility device. Senior citizens facing
some disabilities need to find this technology easy to learn to use as well as be confi-
dent with its usage in their preferred environment. This implies an effort to provide the
appropriate infrastructure elsewhere. Also, it should be easy to adapt this technological
solutions to different environments.
7
Conclusions and Future Work
The functionalities of the i-Walker are divided in three areas: analysis, support and
navigation i-Walker (aid to move in a well-known environment). The Analysis walker
consists in gathering, real time information coming from different sensors: forces in the
handlebars and normal forces from the floor, feet relative position towards the walker,
tilt information, speed of rear wheels, mainly. The analysis of this information will
allow the study about: the gait, how the patient lays onto the walker and how much force
exerts on the handlebars while following a predefined trajectory. The support walker
consists in applying two strategies:
- A helping strategy . In the normal operation of the i-Walker , the user must apply
pushing or pulling forces on the handlers to move around. The strategy of help-
ing the user consists on relieving him from doing a determined percentage of the
necessary forces.
- A braking strategy . It can oblige the patient to apply a forward pushing force in the
handlers in a downhill situation instead of pulling force which can be less safe (see
figure6).
The amount of helping percentage and braking force in each hand can both be deter-
mined by a doctor. Both strategies are not exclusive: we can have the user pushing the
i-Walker going downhill and at the same time the i-Walker relieving him from part of
the necessary pulling/pushing force to move around.
The navigation walker consists in connecting to a cognitive module that gives the ap-
propriate commands to the platform in order to help a user to reach a desired destination
indoors.
The i-Walker commands will consist in moderate braking for steering the i-Walker
to the right direction. Other information will be shared with the cognitive module like:
speed, operation mode etc .The i-Walker platform can be used manually by a walking
user, but it is also capable of performing autonomous moving. The platform can easily
be adapted to accept commands to set a desired speed from a navigation module, when
this is completed. Autonomous moving can be useful, for instance, to drive to a parking
place for charging battery and returning to the side of patient when remotely called.
7.1
Future Work
The results obtained in our work suggested a new interesting scenario regarding reha-
bilitation. As a matter of fact many people use traditional walkers, not only as assistive
 
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