Publication: Development of an intelligent mobility support system
Date
2024-07
Authors
Ling, Ji Lin
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Abstract
Walkers are important devices that enhances support for elderly or mobility impairment people to increase safety and their overall wellbeing. Rollator is a popular choice for most people nowadays. Most rollators on the market had four wheels and hand brakes with some extra features such as basket or padded seat. There is an issue with these walkers which is user had to break the walker with hand brake whenever they want to stop. When a user loses control of his walker, they do not have enough response time to pull the hand brake of the walker before it falls. In this project, the rollator is designed to have an automatic braking feature when an abnormal pressure pattern is detected on the handle. The typical hand-operated brake is replaced with a servo motor to push the metal
bracket to stop walker wheels. A flexible pressure sensor is placed on the handle to measure the change in pressure of the user. MPU6050 is used to constantly check the degree of tilt of the walker. A 1-degree Kalman filter was used to precisely measure the tilt angle of the walker. If the walker tilts beyond the preset value, it will be considered as fall and a buzzer will buzz to seeking help from surrounding. Lastly, analogue distance sensor was placed in front of caster wheel to detect the present of the obstacle. The walker was able to stop when the pressure exerts on the handle exceed 1.7kg or rate of change of pressure exceed 10kg/s. If the walker a fall on the ground the buzzer will buzz at constant frequency until it placed normally on ground. Finally, the analogue distance sensor will
scan for the obstacle in range from 10-40 cm in front of the caster wheel.