A Quantitative Review of Smart Walkers: Trends, Gaps, and a Proposed Evaluation Framework

Smart walkers represent a promising technology to enhance mobility and safety for the growing elderly population. However, the field faces challenges related to real-world performance, user acceptance, and a lack of standardized evaluation methods. This paper addresses these issues by conducting a quantitative review of 47 recent articles (2020-2025) to identify technological trends, application focuses, and research gaps. This review reveals a prevalence of systems using Inertial Measurement Units and Force Sensing Resistors for gait analysis and fall detection, with a growing adoption of machine learning for intelligent control. Yet, advanced navigation and perception technologies like LiDAR remain rare, and a significant gap persists between laboratory prototypes and robust, user-friendly commercial products. To foster more rigorous and comparable research, we propose a minimal common evaluation framework integrating technical performance metrics, standardized usability scales, and clinically relevant functional outcomes. Finally, we reformulate future challenges into concrete technical objectives related to real-world validation, cognitive load reduction, hardware efficiency, and personalized assistance. This structured approach, a result of a multidisciplinary synthesis, aims to guide the development of more effective, adoptable, and impactful smart walkers.