Admittance Control of Powered Exoskeletons Based on Joint Torque Estimation

In recent years, exoskeletons have been widely accepted as rehabilitative and walking assistive devices for either healthy persons or patients with mobility impairment. Depending on mobility of the wearers, the control strategies for exoskeletons may differ significantly. This paper aims at developi...

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Main Authors: Chiawei Liang, Tesheng Hsiao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2020-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9095335/
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author Chiawei Liang
Tesheng Hsiao
author_facet Chiawei Liang
Tesheng Hsiao
author_sort Chiawei Liang
collection DOAJ
description In recent years, exoskeletons have been widely accepted as rehabilitative and walking assistive devices for either healthy persons or patients with mobility impairment. Depending on mobility of the wearers, the control strategies for exoskeletons may differ significantly. This paper aims at developing an admittance control framework for exoskeletons to assist healthy persons in safer, faster, or more energy-efficient walking. A crucial step to accomplish assistive walking for healthy persons is to detect their intention. Direct sensing of the wearer's biological signals, such as electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG), requires additional sensors, which increases the cost and makes it inconvenient for the wearer to put on and take off the exoskeleton. Instead, we propose to detect the wearer's intention by estimating the total torques applied from the wearer to the human-exoskeleton system based on the motor current and joint angles. Then the velocity commands to the joint motors are generated according to the estimated torque and a predefined mechanical admittance function of each joint. Consequently, the exoskeleton complies with the wearer's intention. Rigorous theoretical analysis is performed on robust stability of the closed-loop system. Then experiments are carried out to verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed torque estimation algorithm. In addition, experimental data show that the wearer's gait can be shaped in a desired way by choosing an appropriate admittance function in the proposed admittance control loop.
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spelling doaj.art-702044d8dabd48a2bc72877ed4d29cad2022-12-21T21:28:21ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362020-01-018944049441410.1109/ACCESS.2020.29953729095335Admittance Control of Powered Exoskeletons Based on Joint Torque EstimationChiawei Liang0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3109-1868Tesheng Hsiao1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, TaiwanDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, TaiwanIn recent years, exoskeletons have been widely accepted as rehabilitative and walking assistive devices for either healthy persons or patients with mobility impairment. Depending on mobility of the wearers, the control strategies for exoskeletons may differ significantly. This paper aims at developing an admittance control framework for exoskeletons to assist healthy persons in safer, faster, or more energy-efficient walking. A crucial step to accomplish assistive walking for healthy persons is to detect their intention. Direct sensing of the wearer's biological signals, such as electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG), requires additional sensors, which increases the cost and makes it inconvenient for the wearer to put on and take off the exoskeleton. Instead, we propose to detect the wearer's intention by estimating the total torques applied from the wearer to the human-exoskeleton system based on the motor current and joint angles. Then the velocity commands to the joint motors are generated according to the estimated torque and a predefined mechanical admittance function of each joint. Consequently, the exoskeleton complies with the wearer's intention. Rigorous theoretical analysis is performed on robust stability of the closed-loop system. Then experiments are carried out to verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed torque estimation algorithm. In addition, experimental data show that the wearer's gait can be shaped in a desired way by choosing an appropriate admittance function in the proposed admittance control loop.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9095335/Exoskeletonwalking assistanceintention detectiondisturbance observercompliance controladmittance control
spellingShingle Chiawei Liang
Tesheng Hsiao
Admittance Control of Powered Exoskeletons Based on Joint Torque Estimation
IEEE Access
Exoskeleton
walking assistance
intention detection
disturbance observer
compliance control
admittance control
title Admittance Control of Powered Exoskeletons Based on Joint Torque Estimation
title_full Admittance Control of Powered Exoskeletons Based on Joint Torque Estimation
title_fullStr Admittance Control of Powered Exoskeletons Based on Joint Torque Estimation
title_full_unstemmed Admittance Control of Powered Exoskeletons Based on Joint Torque Estimation
title_short Admittance Control of Powered Exoskeletons Based on Joint Torque Estimation
title_sort admittance control of powered exoskeletons based on joint torque estimation
topic Exoskeleton
walking assistance
intention detection
disturbance observer
compliance control
admittance control
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9095335/
work_keys_str_mv AT chiaweiliang admittancecontrolofpoweredexoskeletonsbasedonjointtorqueestimation
AT teshenghsiao admittancecontrolofpoweredexoskeletonsbasedonjointtorqueestimation