Yoshihiro Miyake, PHd

Professor
Tokyo Institute of Technology

Yoshihiro Miyake is a Professor at the School of Computing, Tokyo Institute of Technology. He received the PhD from the University of Tokyo in 1989. From 1996, he joined the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has engaged in the fundamental research of Communication Science and Human-Computer Interaction. He is now studying the design principle of Co-creation system based on the interaction between human and artifacts.

ABSTRACT

Interpersonal Synchronization based Rhythmic Gait Assist Robot

Everyone has probably experienced the phenomenon where their footsteps unconsciously synchronize with their partner while walking together. This interpersonal synchronization of body motion has been widely observed and is significant in the context of social psychology. However, the mechanism of this embodied cooperation still remains obscure and has not been substantially developed as an engineering application. In this study, by assuming "mutual entrainment" as an interpersonal synchronization mechanism, we establish a new cooperative walking system between a walking human and a gait assist robot. In this system, rhythmic stimuli corresponding to the timing of footsteps are exchanged between them. As a result, it was demonstrated that the two walking rhythms adapt mutually after the start of interaction, and stable synchronization is generated automatically. Applying this method to walking support for Parkinson's disease patients, its effectiveness in stabilizing the walking of the patient was shown. These results indicate the importance of interpersonal mutual entrainment of rhythmic motion for gait assist, and new human-robot interaction technologies are expected as an extension of this framework.