Design of a pendulum-type crutch-walk training device for presenting sensation to be falling

We may be suddenly forced to use crutches when having injuries to our legs, and, at that time, are often unfamiliar with the use of the crutches. To prevent secondary accidents that are caused by the lack of the patient’s knowledge of using crutches, the authors proposed a training device with pendulum-mechanism that may have a trainee suffer a falling by providing an external torque to the trainee’s body. It is expected to present a sense to be falling and to perturb the crutch walking motion by swinging a motor-driven pendulum weight. Thus, patients will acquire an ability to cope with falling by the use of the proposed system. In this paper, it was clarified that the pendulum device was effective for tilting the crutch moreover with any weight masses through experiments. In addition, it is also confirmed that it succeeds in perturbing the walking motion of the participants.