Jtekt Corporation

Genki Murata

Yoshiyuki Shibata

Shinji Takeuchi

Manabu Kanaya

Takeshi Ueda

Yuki Matsuoka

A walking assist device has a frame, a plurality of wheels, drive units, a battery, and a drive control unit that controls the drive units. The walking assist device also has: a pair of right and left movable handles that are grasped by a user and movable back and forth with respect to the frame in accordance with arm swing performed during walk of the user; handle guide units provided on the frame to guide the movable handles in a movable range that matches the arm swing performed during walk of the user; and a grasp portion state detection unit that detects the state of the movable handles. The drive control unit controls the travel speed of the walking assist device by controlling the drive units on the basis of the state of the movable handles which is detected using the grasp portion state detection unit.

Walking assist device

A walking assist device has a frame, a pair of right and left arm portions, a pair of right and left grasp portions, wheels including a pair of right and left drive wheels, drive units, a battery, a drive control unit, acting force measurement units that measure acting forces on the grasp portions, and holding units that hold the grasp portions at a predetermined position in the front-rear direction of the arm portions set in advance. The walking assist device travels forward together with a user. The holding units generate a restoring force for returning the grasp portions to the predetermined position. The drive control unit controls the drive units on the basis of acting forces calculated on the basis of detection signals from the acting force measurement units.

In a material handling and stair climbing vehicle, when the vehicle is shifted from a state where the wheels with two axles are grounded on a travelling surface to a standing state achieved by the wheels with one axle, a main body portion is turned around support shafts with respect to supporting portions in the two-axle wheel grounded state. Then, an inertial force around the support shafts is generated by reducing the speed of turning of the main body portion with respect to the supporting portions. Then, the vehicle is shifted to the standing state achieved by the wheels with one axle by turning the supporting portions around the axles of the wheels with one axle, which are grounded on the travelling surface, by the inertial force.

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Shiki-gun, Japan

Genki Murata