As human assistive devices become more advanced the development and testing of these devices may need to include the use of simulation. We find this to be the case for a device currently in development, a quadrupedal human assistance device. With the desired behavior of this system being similar to the standard wheeled walker, we can use the behavior of humans using this system to evaluate the performance of our system and controls in simulation. This work presents a method for evaluating the performance of such a system using experimental data gathered in an ideal use scenario and extending this to a simulation of the new system and the user. This simulation allows for design and testing to occur without needing constant access to test subjects and without placing users at risk of injury from an improperly functioning device.

This work is supported by the NIH/NINR under grant #R01NR016151