Patent ID: 8202234

Claim:
A control device for a walking assistance device, comprising: a seating section adapted to receive a part of a weight of a user seated on the seating section; a pair of left and right foot sole installation sections adapted to be fitted to the foot soles of the legs of the user and land on the ground when the legs of the user are standing; a pair of left and right leg links each having a plurality of joints and connecting the seating section and the foot sole installation sections, respectively; an actuator for the right leg link and an actuator for the left leg link each of which drives at least one joint of each leg link; an acting force detection element configured to detect a vertical acting force acting on the user from the seating section; an actuator controller configured to control a driving force of at least one of the actuator for the right leg link and the actuator for the left leg link according to at least the detected vertical acting force so that the vertical acting force is maintained at a level of a predetermined lower limit or greater; a target acting force setting element configured to limit a target acting force that is a target value of the vertical acting force to a value equal to or greater than the predetermined lower limit, and to set the target acting force to the value; and a treading force measuring element configured to measure a treading force of each of the legs of the user on the basis of an output of a first force sensor provided in each of the foot sole installation sections, wherein the actuator controller is configured to perform a feedback control for the driving force of at least one of the actuator for the right leg link and the actuator for the left leg link according to a difference between the target acting force and the detected acting force, so that the detected acting force is approximated to the target acting force, and the target acting force setting element is configured to set the target acting force according to a total sum of the measured treading forces of the legs of the user while limiting the target acting force to the lower limit or greater.