SmartWalker: An intelligent robotic walker

Ensuring mobility of the elderly is an important task in our aging society. To this end, this paper presents SMARTWALKER, a high-tech extension of a regular walker that aims to navigate around its environment autonomously and assist its user intelligently. The walker is equipped with sensors and actuators and operates in two modes, autonomous and assistive. In the autonomous mode, the walker accepts gesture commands via its gesture-based interface and navigates around accordingly. The interface uses a k-nearest neighbors classifier with dynamic time warping to recognize gestures and the Viola and Jones face detector to locate the user. In the assistive mode, its automatic speed controller determines the optimal speed for the walker. The walker locates its user by detecting the user’s legs using a laser range scanner and combines the information with other sensory data for the speed control. The walker was evaluated with residents of retirement homes in Zürich. The study aimed to understand the usefulness of robotic walker to the elderly, evaluate its potential to replace traditional walkers, and determine the appropriateness of the added functionality. The elderly found the SMARTWALKER’s autonomy useful and exciting and the walker with the controller slightly more comfortable and easier to maneuver. They stated that the walker is too big and too heavy but liked it more than traditional walkers in the assistive mode.