Gait assistance apparatus and operating method thereof
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsBokman Lim, Kyung-Rock Kim, Youngbo Shim, Jun-Won Jang, Seungyong Hyung
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Abstract
A gait assistance apparatus including at least one sensor configured to sense a step motion of a user, and an operator configured to determine assistance forces of a right step and a left step of the user based on step motion information of the user and adjust the assistance force for at least one of the right step or the left step of the user based on a result of proportionally adding together the assistance forces of the right step and the left step based on a variable ratio may be provided.
Claims17
A method of operating a gait assistance apparatus, the method comprising:
- sensing, using a sensor, step motion information of a user during a first gait cycle;
- determining, by at least one processor, a first assistance force for assisting one leg of the user and a second assistance force for assisting another leg of the user during a second gait cycle occurring after the first gait cycle;
- sensing, using the sensor, the step motion information of the user during the second gait cycle;
- determining a variable ratio based on a difference between the step motion information of the user during the first gait cycle and the step motion information of the user during the second gait cycle;
- adjusting, by the at least one processor, the first assistance force based on the variable ratio to generate an adjusted first assistance force such that an amount that a motion of the another leg influences the adjusted first assistance force applied to the one leg by the gait assistance apparatus varies based on the variable ratio;
- and
- controlling, by the at least one processor, the gait assistance apparatus to apply the adjusted first assistance force to the one leg during a step of the one leg in a third gait cycle occurring after the second gait cycle.
A gait assistance apparatus comprising:
- a sensor configured to sense step motion information of a user;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- sense, using the sensor, the step motion information of the user during a first gait cycle,
- determine a first assistance force for assisting one leg of the user and a second assistance force for assisting another leg of the user during a second gait cycle occurring after the first gait cycle,
- sense, using the sensor, the step motion information of the user during the second gait cycle,
- determine a variable ratio based on a difference between the step motion information of the user during the first gait cycle and the step motion information of the user during the second gait cycle,
- adjust the first assistance force based on the variable ratio to generate an adjusted first assistance force such that an amount that a motion of the another leg influences the adjusted first assistance force applied to the one leg by the gait assistance apparatus varies based on the variable ratio, and
- control the gait assistance apparatus to apply the adjusted first assistance force to the one leg during a step of the one leg in a third gait cycle occurring after the second gait cycle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.