Concept Development in a Walking Assistive Device

Abstract

The design of a walking assistive device with a single stick, offset handle, and small base area platform has been introduced in this study as an alternative channel for supporting senior adults to walk by themselves with confidence while maintaining good posture. The stick can follow the rhythm of walking step, and the users can control it easily. To provide cost-effective design structure while preserving customer requirements, product design and development (PDD) with the assistance of finite element analysis (FEA) is applied in this study for simulating the load distribution on the area of interest. The perceptions from potential users expressed that “strong and stiff with light weight” were the main considerations for making a walking device. Aluminum material was suggested to be the reference for developing a walking cane. The concept of “usefulness of product” was applied as the guideline to help and support the design team for selecting the right design parameters of a walking cane based on the data obtained from the survey and customer perceptions.