Care Robot Trajectory Correction for Comfortable Standing

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Solution Overview

Problem

Care robots struggle to assist users in standing up without discomfort when the foot position varies, leading to tilted postures due to incorrect alignment between the feet and knees during the transition from sitting to standing.

Innovation Solution

A care robot with a base, robot arm section, holding section, storage section for trajectory data, and correction section that adjusts the standing up trajectory based on the user's foot position to ensure proper alignment and posture.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If the care robot uses a fixed standing up trajectory, then the control system is simple, but the user experiences tilted posture and discomfort when foot position varies

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveposture comfortVSAvoidtrajectory control system
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements dynamic trajectory adjustment by detecting the user's foot position and automatically correcting the standing up trajectory in real-time. The robot arm section modifies its movement path based on the detected foot position, ensuring the user achieves a natural standing posture regardless of initial foot placement. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by making the system responsive to user variations without requiring complex pre-programming for all possible scenarios.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The patent employs feedback mechanisms where sensors detect the user's foot position during the standing up process. This detected information is fed back to the control system, which then adjusts the trajectory accordingly. The feedback loop enables the robot to compensate for variations in foot position, ensuring comfortable posture while maintaining a relatively simple overall system architecture through intelligent control algorithms.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Measurement precision

If the care robot detects and corrects foot position, then posture accuracy is improved, but the system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvefoot position detection accuracyVSAvoiddetection and correction system
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a self-correcting mechanism where the robot automatically detects foot position deviations and adjusts its own trajectory without external intervention. The system uses onboard sensors to monitor user position and autonomously modifies the robot arm's movement path, eliminating the need for complex external correction devices or manual adjustments. This self-service approach improves measurement precision while keeping the system architecture relatively simple through integrated sensing and control.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

3Ease of operation

If the care robot adjusts the trajectory for each user position, then standing posture is natural and comfortable, but the control processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestanding posture naturalnessVSAvoidtrajectory correction time
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements preliminary detection of foot position at the start of the standing up process, allowing the control system to pre-calculate the appropriate trajectory correction before movement begins. By detecting the foot position early and preparing the corrected trajectory in advance, the system achieves natural standing posture without adding significant time to the overall standing up process. This preliminary action approach balances posture naturalness with time efficiency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3025693B1Assistance robot
Publication Date: 2018.07.04 FUJI CORP
  • EP3025693B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP3025693B1 patent drawingFigure 3a
  • EP3025693B1 patent drawingFigure 3b~4a

AI summary

A care robot that stands up a care receiver in a posture without discomfort even when a foot position of the sitting care receiver varies. The care robot comprises a base; a robot arm section that is provided on the base and includes multiple arms that are relatively movable to each other by using a drive section; a holding section that is provided on a portion of the robot arm section and that assists the care receiver to stand up or sit down by supporting a body part of the care receiver; a storage section 26 that stores standing up trajectory reference data which indicates the standing up trajectory along which a movement control portion of the care receiver passes when the care receiver sitting on a seat stands up being supported by the holding section; a correction section 27e that corrects the standing up trajectory reference data based on a foot position of the care receiver when sitting on the seat; and a drive control section 27f that drives the drive section so as to drive the robot arm section based on the standing up trajectory reference data corrected by the correction section.