Walking Support Robot Dynamic Safety Area Projection

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Users of walking support robots may not adequately attend to their surroundings due to focusing on projected footstep guidance, increasing the risk of collisions with nearby individuals who are unaware of the robot or user.

Innovation Solution

A walking support robot equipped with a rotary element, handle load detector, and projector that adjusts a boundary line on the walking surface based on detected handle load and user intentions to create a safety area, reducing the likelihood of collisions by dynamically changing the projected boundary line's distance and shape in response to user load and movement.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If the projector projects footstep guidance images onto the walking surface, then the user can follow step-by-step walking guidance, but the user's attention to surrounding conditions decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvestep guidance accuracyVSAvoidsurrounding awareness

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The projector serves as an intermediary that provides step guidance information without requiring the user to directly view it. By projecting footstep images onto the walking surface, the system mediates between the guidance need and the user's natural walking behavior, allowing users to maintain surrounding awareness while receiving accurate step guidance through ground-projected visual cues

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system transitions from direct visual guidance (requiring user attention to screens or markers) to ground-projected guidance in the user's peripheral vision. This dimensional shift places guidance information in the environmental space rather than requiring it in the user's focal attention space, enabling simultaneous guidance reception and surrounding awareness

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Manufacturing precision

If the user concentrates on the projected footprint image for walking guidance, then walking accuracy improves, but the probability of collision with nearby third persons increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvewalking path accuracyVSAvoidcollision risk

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system proactively projects warning images and boundary lines in advance of potential collision zones. By displaying visual warnings on the walking surface before a collision could occur, the system creates preliminary anti-action that alerts both the user and nearby third persons to potential hazards, enabling preventive behavior before actual contact happens

Inventive Principle:

Principle #9Preliminary anti-action

Solution Approach 2:

The projector uses different colors to indicate various states and warning levels. By changing the color of projected images based on proximity to third persons and collision risk, the system provides intuitive visual feedback that communicates hazard levels without requiring the user to divert attention from the walking path, thus maintaining walking accuracy while reducing collision risk

Inventive Principle:

Principle #32Color changes

Data Source

PatentUS10449108B2Robot and method of supporting walking using robot

Publication Date: 2019.10.22 PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO LTD

AI summary

A robot includes a rotary element capable of rolling over a walking surface on which a user walks, a handle held by the user, a handle load detector that detects a handle load applied to the handle by the user, and a projector that projects light onto the walking surface, the projector being operable to change the light based on the detected handle load.