Biped robot to assist walking and moving up-and-down stairs

A biped robot technology for household use is proposed in this paper. The motivation of the biped robot is to assist an aged person with an unsteady walk in walking and moving up-and-down stairs. The robot has two legs with waist, and its waist is fixed to a handrail of a house using linear guides. The robot is able to walk by supporting itself on the handrail. A control bar is attached to the robot waist. An aged person can easily walk and move up-and-down stairs by stepping onto the feet of the robot. The robot structure using the handrail is advantageous since it allows for a compact, lightweight, and low cost robot mechanism. A scaled down biped robot was fabricated in order to confirm the proposed principle, and the simulation study was also carried out.