• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.478-487
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• 2022

Objective: This study was conducted to analyze the effect of wearable complex muscle support system on energy efficiency during walking in elderly. Design: Cross sectional study Methods: Twenty healthy elderly participated in this study. All subjects performed a 6 minuteswalk test(6MWT) and stair climbing test in dual, slack and no suit conditions. In each condition, oxygen consumption(VO₂), metabolic equivalents(METs), energy expenditure measures(EEm), physiological cost index(PCI), walking velocity and heartrate were measured. Through repeated measured ANOVA, it was investigated whether there was a statistically significant difference in the measurement results between the three conditions. Results: In over-ground walking, VO₂, METs and EEm showed significant differences between no suit and slack conditions(p<0.05). In stair climbing, VO₂ showed significant difference between slack and dual conditions(p<0.05). Also, METs and EEm showed significant differences between no suit and slack, and between slack and dual conditions(p<0.05). Conclusions: Wearing the wearable complex muscle support system for elderly does not have much benefit in energy metabolism efficiency in over-ground, but there is a benefit in stair walking.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.288-295
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• 2022

This study shows a system identification method of a balancing loading device for a stair climbing delivery robot. The balancing loading device is designed as a 2-axes gimbal structure and is interpreted as two independent pendulum structures for simplifying. The loading device's properties such as mass, moment of inertia, and position of the center of gravity are changeable for luggage. The system identification process of the loading device is required, and the controller should be optimized for the system in real-time. In this study, the system identification method is based on least squares method to estimate the unknown parameters of the loading device's dynamic equation. It estimates the unknown parameters by calculating them that minimize the error function between the real system's motion and the estimated system's motion. This study improves the accuracy of parameter estimation using a null space solution. The null space solution can produce the correct parameters by adjusting the parameter's relative sizes. The proposed system identification method is verified by the simulation to determine how close the estimated unknown parameters are to the real parameters.