Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Ken Yasuhara

Kei Shimada

Yosuke Endo

Toru Takenaka

Takashi Hirata

Tatsuya Ishikawa

Tetsuya Ido

Yoshihiro Miyake

Yosuke Ikedo

Eiichi Genda

Shuichi Wakita

Provided is a travel motion assist device capable of assisting a travel motion of a user without causing any discomfort, and has a high level of versatility. A travel motion assist device includes an assist drive unit configured to be worn on a prescribed joint of the user required for the travel motion of the user, and to be driven in a corresponding manner, a torso motion detection unit configured to be worn on a torso of the user, and to detect the displacement of a center of gravity C indicating the movement of the torso, and a control unit configured to control an operation of the assist drive unit, wherein the control unit estimates a phase of the travel motion of the user according to a detection result of the torso motion detection unit, and drives the assist drive unit at a prescribed phase.

Travel motion assist device

Provided is a walking assist device including a main frame configured to be worn by a user, a power unit mounted on the main frame, a pair of power transmission members for transmitting assist force provided by the power unit to femoral parts of the user and a control unit for controlling an operation of the power unit, wherein the control unit comprises a differential angle computation unit for computing a differential angle between angular positions of the femoral parts of the user about respective hip joints of the user; a differential angle phase computation unit for computing a differential angle phase according to the differential angle; and an assist force computation unit for computing an assist force to be applied to the user according to the differential angle phase.

Walking assist device

According to a walking motion assist device, an assisting force T of a leg in a standing-leg period is controlled to indicate a greatest value or a maximum value in a first designated period (refer to the one-dot chain line and the two-dot chain line in t=tto t). By doing so, in the first designated period (an initial period or a prior period) of one leg, a translation of a body derived from a floor reaction force acting on the one leg is largely prompted compared to other periods of the standing-leg period. A smooth starting of floor leaving and bending motion of the other leg is prompted so as to follow the translation of the body.

Walking motion assist device

A walking assist device is capable of operating at an appropriate cycle in view of the motion cycle of a human being to be assisted while at the same time reducing the number of control parameters to be adjusted or set. A second phase oscillator, based on which the phase of the periodic operation of each actuator is controlled, is calculated on the basis of the difference between a first phase oscillator, which indicates a phase of the periodic motion of each thigh relative to the upper body of a human being, and the second phase oscillator, and an intrinsic angular velocity. A current intrinsic angular velocity is set by correcting a previous intrinsic angular velocity by an amount based on a previous difference between the first phase oscillator and the second phase oscillator such that the previous difference approaches a desired difference.

A walking assist device evaluates the degree of asymmetry between a left motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicative of the time-dependent change form of an output of a left hip joint angle sensor, and a right motion oscillator, which is a waveform signal indicative of the time-dependent change form of an output of a right hip joint angle sensor. In order to reduce the degree of asymmetry, the value of at least one of a left bending coefficient, a left stretching coefficient, a right bending coefficient, and a right stretching coefficient is adjusted.

Walking assist device, walking assist method, walking state estimating device and walking state estimating method

The present invention provides a rehabilitation device using a walking assistance device () having an actuator which generates and provides torque to a lower limb joint of a wearer wearing the walking assistance device (), comprising a floor reaction force pattern storing unit () configured to store a reference floor reaction force pattern; a control target floor reaction force setting unit () for determining a control target floor reaction force based on the floor reaction force pattern stored in the floor reaction force pattern storing unit (); a target torque calculating unit () for calculating a target torque of the actuator to achieve the control target floor reaction force determined by the control target floor reaction force setting unit (); and an actuator output controller () for controlling output of the actuator such that the actuator generates a torque matching the target torque calculated by the target torque calculating unit (); wherein the floor reaction force that the wearer receives is increased and decreased by the application of torque generated by the actuator.

Rehabilitation device and controlling method thereof

A movement assist system for assisting stably a movement of a creature, particularly a creature whose body part is paralyzed due to neuropathy or the like. According to the movement assist system, walking movement of a human is assisted according to an output from an actuator of a movement assist device. A timing of an electrical stimulation applied to the creature is adjusted by an electrical stimulation device on the basis of a signal representing an arithmetic processing result by a first controller which controls the output of the actuator. According thereto, it is possible to apply an electrical stimulation to the human at an appropriate timing from the viewpoint of maintaining an appropriate posture by considering a periodical movement state of the human even in cases where the body function is degraded, allowing the human assisted by the movement assist device to continue the walking movement.

Movement assist system

Provided is a device capable of assisting a periodical motion of a creature, such as a human, by applying a force to the creature so as to match a motion rhythm and a motion scale of the periodical motion to a desired motion rhythm and a desired motion scale, respectively, while reducing computation processing load. According to a motion assist device () of the present invention, a value of a member or a coefficient contained in a simultaneous differential equation of a state variable (u) for defining a second model which generates a second oscillator (&#x3be;) is adjusted by means of an adjusting device (). The second oscillator (&#x3be;) is generated by the adjusted second model and a torque (T) applied to a human (P) is controlled to vary periodically according to the second oscillator (&#x3be;).

Motion assist device

The present invention provides a walking assistance device comprising a pelvis support member () adapted to be worn on a hip of a wearer; a thigh support member () adapted to be worn on a thigh of the wearer; a leg support member () adapted to be worn on a leg of the wearer; a knee joint hinge () disposed at a position corresponding to a side part of a knee of the wearer and connecting the leg support member () to the thigh support member () in a manner that enables back-and forth rotation of the leg support member () with respect to the thigh support member (); and a power generator assembly () mounted to the pelvis support member () at a position corresponding to a side part of a hip joint of the wearer; wherein the power generator assembly () comprises a hip joint power generator () and a knee joint power generator () each having an output member (, respectively), with the output member () of the hip joint power generator () being connected to the thigh support member () in a power-transmittable manner and the output member () of the knee joint power generator () being connected to the leg support member () via a power transmitting mechanism () which transmits power generated by the knee joint power generator () to the leg support member ().

Walking assistance device

Provided is a motion assisting device capable of assisting a periodical walking motion of a creature so as to conduct a smooth motion of a leg thereof. According to the motion assisting device, an assisting force applied to the creature so as to assist a leg of the creature in moving with respect to a body thereof is reinforced by an increment in an auxiliary coefficient increased in a reinforcement duration. Accordingly, the stretch motion of the leg at the on-ground state is assisted by a relatively stronger assisting force. Thereby, the body is conducted to translate forward by a floor reaction force subjected to the leg at the on-ground state. A flexion motion of the leg at an off-ground state is induced by a reflex (stretch reflex) to the stretch motion of the leg by the assisting force at a previous off-ground state.

Motion assisting device

A device for assisting a user's motion in an appropriate rhythm by bringing a user's motion rhythm close to its target rhythm while harmonizing the motion rhythms of different parts of the user's body and a rhythm for assisting the user's motion is provided. The inventive walking assist device generates a first oscillator which attains mutual entrainment with a first motion oscillator in such a way as to reflect a natural angular velocity. A new natural angular velocity is set based on a phase difference between the first motion oscillator and the first oscillator. Further, a second oscillator which oscillates in a rhythm reflecting the natural angular velocity is generated based on a second motion oscillator. An assist oscillator is then generated based on the second oscillator, and a variable force responsive to the assist oscillator is applied to the user's body.

A device for inducing a user's motion such that the user's motion rhythm and scale coincide, respectively, with a target rhythm and scale is provided. According to the inventive motion induction device, a first oscillator is generated which attains mutual entrainment with a motion oscillator in such a way as to reflect a natural angular velocity &#x3c9;. A new natural angular velocity &#x3c9;is set based on a phase difference (first phase difference) &#x3b8;between the motion oscillator and the first oscillator. Further, a second oscillator is generated based on the new natural angular velocity &#x3c9;. An induction oscillator is then generated which includes a first induction oscillator, the first induction oscillator including the second oscillator and a first potential which brings the value of the motion oscillator responsive to the user's motion scale close to its target value according to the natural angular velocity &#x3c9;.

Motion guide device, its control system and control program

The motion assist device () is provided with an auxiliary oscillator generation element () configured to generate, on the basis of a second intrinsic angular velocity (&#x3c9;) set according to a first oscillator (&#x3be;) generated from a first motion oscillator (&#x3c6;) and a first model and a second oscillator (&#x3be;) generated from a second motion oscillator (&#x3c6;) and a second model, an auxiliary oscillator (&#x3b7;) which includes therein a first auxiliary oscillator (&#x3b7;) denoting an elastic force originated from a virtual elastic element for assisting the motion of the user so as to approximate a value of a third motion oscillator (&#x3c6;) to a desired value (&#x3c6;, &#x3c6;) related to a desired motion scale of the user, and an auxiliary oscillator regulation element () configured to sequentially regulate the first auxiliary oscillator (&#x3b7;) so as to approximate a motion index value of the user to a reference value.

A motion assist device for assisting a periodical motion of a creature such as a human by applying a force with appropriate strength to the creature so as to match a motion scale with a desired motion scale thereof regardless of a motion rhythm of the periodical motion. According to the motion assist device (), a second model is corrected so as to approximate a value of a motion variable (&#x3be;) to a desired value (&#x3be;). A second oscillator (&#x3be;) is generated according to the corrected second model. A periodical force (torque) (T) applied to the human (P) is controlled according to the second oscillator (&#x3be;).

A device for inducing a user's motion in a rhythm responsive to a motion rhythm after the user's motion rhythm changes suddenly. The walking assist device generates a first oscillator which attains mutual entrainment with a user's hip joint angular velocity to reflect a natural angular velocity. On the other hand, a new natural angular velocity is set based on the phase difference between the hip joint angular velocity and the first oscillator. A second oscillator which oscillates in rhythm reflecting the natural angular velocity is generated. An inducing oscillator is generated based on the second oscillator, and a torque responsive to the inducing oscillator acts on the user's body. If the magnitude of a periodic variation in the hip joint angular velocity exceeds a threshold value, a second oscillator which oscillates in rhythm reflecting the angular velocity of the first oscillator instead of the natural angular velocity is generated.

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Wako, Japan

Ken Yasuhara