At present，China has become the country with the most elderly population in the world，and it has become one of the countries with the fastest population aging. When it comes to getting old，the degradation of nervous and skeletal system has taken away part of function from many elderly people，leading to their loss of balance when standing and walking，makes them easy to fall and even rises many health and life risks. Therefore，the attention of society has been increasingly put on elderly safety. Meanwhile，common chronic diseases and accidental injuries have also accelerated the growth of disabled population. Because of limited mobility，the assistance of auxiliary aids is strongly required during their daily walking or rehabilitation training. As a tool to support balance and assist walking，the walking aid helps the elderly and disabled people to walk and enhance their ability to act independently. It plays an important role in improving their quality of life and has gradually become the most important and most popular rehabilitation aid. With both domestic and global vision，this paper introduces the application status，existing problems and development trends of these devices from the aspects of structure，classification and technology.