Walking assistance method and apparatus
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsKeehong Seo, Youngjin Park, Jusuk Lee, Hyundo Choi, Seungyong Hyung
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for assisting walking of a user is provided. Information related to a motion of a user wearing a walking assistance apparatus is measured by an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a gait phase of the user corresponding to the measured information is predicted using data learned in advance through machine learning, an assistance torque to be provided to the user is determined based on the predicted gait phase, and a driver is controlled to output the assistance torque.
Claims18
A walking assistance method, comprising:
- predicting a gait phase of a user within a gait cycle by,
- receiving, from a sensor, information related to a motion of the user wearing a walking assistance apparatus,
- encoding the information related to the motion to one of a plurality of vertices of a figure with a predetermined shape having i) a preset number of the plurality of vertices corresponding to respective phases of the gait cycle and ii) a continuous perimeter such that a value of the gait cycle remains continuous across a boundary between each of the plurality of vertices corresponding to the respective phases of the gait cycle, the encoding including,
- applying the information to a trigonometric function corresponding to the figure to generate at least one vector, and
- selecting the one of the plurality of vertices on the continuous perimeter of the figure based on the vector boundary, and
- predicting the gait phase by decoding the selected one of the plurality of vertices to the gait phase such that the gait phase that is predicted is unsmoothed when the selected one of the plurality of vertices crosses the boundary;
- and
- controlling an assistance torque applied to the walking assistance apparatus based on the gait phase.
A walking assistance apparatus, comprising:
- a driver configured to assist walking of a user wearing the walking assistance apparatus;
- and
- at least one processor configured to,
- predict a gait phase of a user within a gait cycle of the user by,
- receiving, from a sensor, information related to a motion of the user wearing the walking assistance apparatus,
- encoding the information related to the motion to one of a plurality of vertices of a figure with a predetermined shape having i) preset number of the plurality of vertices corresponding to respective phases of the gait cycle and ii) a continuous perimeter such that a value of the gait cycle remains continuous across a boundary between each of the plurality of vertices corresponding to the respective phases of the gait cycle, the encoding including,
- applying the information to a trigonometric function corresponding to the figure to generate at least one vector, and
- selecting the one of the plurality of vertices on the continuous perimeter of the figure based on the vector, and
- predicting the gait phase by decoding the selected one of the plurality of vertices to the gait phase such that the gait phase that is predicted is unsmoothed when the selected one of the plurality of vertices crosses the boundary, and
- control an assistance torque applied to the walking assistance apparatus based on the gait phase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.