착용형 전동 목발 제어시스템

Abstract

This paper proposes a wearable and motorized crutch control system for the patients usingthe conventional crutches. The conventional crutches have a few disadvantages such as theinconvenience caused by the direct contact between the ground and the armpit of the patients, andunstable gait patterns. In order to resolve these problems, the motorized crutch is designed as a wearabletype on an injured lower limb. In other words, the crutch makes the lower limb to be moved forwardwhile supporting the body weight, protecting the lower limb with frames, and rotating a roller equippedon the bottom of the frames. Also the crutch is controlled using the electromyography and two forcesensing resistor (FSR) sensors. The electromyography is used to extract the walking intention from thepatient and the FSR sensors to classify the stance and swing phases while walking. As a result, thedeveloped crutch makes the patients walk enabling both hands to be free, as if normal people do.