A passive guidance system for a robotic walking assistant using brakes

Robotic walkers are a promising techological direction to improve the mobility of older adults. In this paper, we propose a guidance mechanism based on the differential actions of two brakes located on the rear wheels. The guidance problem can be seen as a complex dynamic path following problem, with limited control authority in the actuators and with important constraints on the user comfort. We cast the problem into an optimisation framework and propose a computationally efficient solution that can be implemented on low cost devices with limited computing power. Simulation results are presented to validate the proposed approach.