Method and device for assisting walking
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsJusuk Lee, Hyun Do Choi, Seungyong Hyung, Youngjin Park, Bokman Lim, Jun-Won Jang
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Abstract
A walking assistance device and method for providing an assist torque to an ankle of a user is provided. To provide an assist torque to an ankle of a user, the walking assistance device generates a leg image by capturing a second leg using a camera attached to a first leg, determines a gait state of the second leg based on the leg image, determines an assist torque value output to the first leg based on the gait state of the second leg, and controls a driving device such that the assist torque value is output to the first leg.
Claims16
A method of controlling a driving device of a walking assistance device, the method comprising:
- capturing, via a camera attached to a first leg of a user, a leg image of a second leg of the user;
- adjusting an orientation of the leg image to generate an adjusted leg image based on at least one of acceleration information and orientation information acquired from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) attached to at least one of the first leg and the second leg;
- determining a gait state of the second leg based on the adjusted leg image;
- determining an assist torque value output to the first leg based on the gait state of the second leg;
- and
- controlling the driving device to output the assist torque value to the first leg.
A walking assistance device for providing an assist torque to an ankle of a first leg of a user, the walking assistance device comprising:
- a memory including a program for providing the assist torque;
- and
- a processor configured to execute the program to,
- capture, via a camera attached to the first leg of the user, a leg image of a second leg of the user,
- adjust an orientation of the leg image to generate an adjusted leg image based on at least one of acceleration information and orientation information acquired from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) attached to at least one of the first leg and the second leg,
- determine a gait state of the second leg based on the adjusted leg image,
- determine an assist torque value output to the first leg based on the gait state of the second leg, and
- control a driving device to output the assist torque value to the first leg such that the driving device provides the assist torque to the ankle of the first leg of the user.
A walking assistance device for assisting walking of a user, the walking assistance device comprising:
- a camera configured to attach to a first leg of the user such that the camera is configured to capture a leg image of a second leg of the user;
- a processor configured to,
- adjust an orientation of the leg image to generate an adjusted leg image based on at least one of acceleration information and orientation information acquired from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) attached to at least one of the first leg and the second leg,
- determine a gait state of the second leg based on the adjusted leg image, and
- determine an assist torque value to output to the first leg based on the gait state of the second leg;
- and
- a driving device configured to generate an assist torque having the assist torque value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.