Vibration Characteristics Analysis of Human Riding Comfort for Transporting Posture of Elderly-Assistant and Walking-Assistant Robot

When the elderly-assistant and walking-assistant robot (EWR) is working outdoors, the vibration caused by the uneven road surface will be transmitted to the body of the elderly through the robot, and causing different degrees of discomfort. This is particularly so when the EWR works in transporting posture, the user is sitting on the seat of the robot. In addition to the hip and seat contact, the feet and hands of the elderly are placed on pedals and handles of the robot, respectively. The vibration of the robot is transmitted not only from the seat surface to the hip, but also from the pedal and the handle to the foot and hand respectively. At this time, the vibration generated by the robot will directly affect the riding comfort of the human body. In order to evaluate the riding comfort of human body in vibration environment effectively, the dynamic model of human-robot system was initially established by using SolidWorks and ADAMS/View software. Secondly, to perform the vibration analysis, the road surface roughness signal generated by MATLAB was used as the input excitation for the dynamic model of human-robot system. Then the riding comfort of human body under different road surface was simulated. The simulation results show that the EWR can basically meet the comfort requirements of the elderly, but there is still potential for improvement. The research process also provides some base support for the follow-up research.

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