Preserving and encouraging mobility in the elderly and adults with chronic conditions is of paramount importance. However, existing walking aids are either inadequate to provide sufficient support to users' stability or too bulky and poorly maneuverable to be used outside hospital environments. In addition, they all lack adaptability to individual requirements. To address these challenges, this paper introduces WANDER, a novel Walking Assistive omNi-Directional Exo-Robot. It consists of an omnidirectional platform and a robust aluminum structure mounted on top of it, which provides partial body weight support. A comfortable and minimally restrictive coupling interface embedded with a force/torque sensor allows to detect users' intentions, which are translated into command velocities by means of a variable admittance controller. An optimization technique based on users' preferences, i.e., Preference-Based Optimization (PBO) guides the choice of the admittance parameters (i.e., virtual mass and damping) to better fit subject-specific needs and characteristics. Experiments with twelve healthy subjects exhibited a significant decrease in energy consumption and jerk when using WANDER with PBO parameters as well as improved user performance and comfort. The great interpersonal variability in the optimized parameters highlights the importance of personalized control settings when walking with an assistive device, aiming to enhance users' comfort and mobility while ensuring reliable physical support.

翻译：保持和促进老年人与慢性疾病成年人的活动能力至关重要。然而，现有助行器要么无法为用户稳定性提供足够支持，要么过于笨重且操控性差，难以在医院环境之外使用。此外，它们均缺乏对个体需求的适应性。为解决这些挑战，本文提出了一种新型行走辅助全向外骨骼机器人——WANDER。该系统由一个全向平台及其上方的坚固铝制结构组成，可提供部分体重支撑。一个嵌入力/力矩传感器的舒适且最小约束的耦合接口能够检测用户意图，并通过可变导纳控制器将其转化为指令速度。基于用户偏好的优化技术（即偏好导向优化，PBO）引导导纳参数（即虚拟质量和阻尼）的选取，以更好地适应个体特定需求和特征。对12名健康受试者的实验表明，使用基于PBO参数的WANDER时，能量消耗和冲击度显著降低，且用户表现与舒适度得到提升。优化参数中显著的人际变异性凸显了使用辅助设备行走时个性化控制设置的重要性，其目标是在确保可靠物理支持的同时增强用户舒适度与活动能力。