Model-based walking support system with wearable walking helper

In this paper, a wearable walking support system for people who have difficulties in walking because of weakened lower extremities is proposed. We propose a wearable walking support device, referred to as wearable walking helper, for supporting antigravity muscles on lower extremities, and a model-based control algorithm for the device without using biological signals, that is, supporting knee joint moment is calculated based on the antigravity term of necessary knee joint moment, which is estimated based on a human model. The control algorithm is implemented in the. wearable walking helper and experimental results illustrate the potential of the proposed system.