2,539 research outputs found
A Passivity-based Nonlinear Admittance Control with Application to Powered Upper-limb Control under Unknown Environmental Interactions
This paper presents an admittance controller based on the passivity theory
for a powered upper-limb exoskeleton robot which is governed by the nonlinear
equation of motion. Passivity allows us to include a human operator and
environmental interaction in the control loop. The robot interacts with the
human operator via F/T sensor and interacts with the environment mainly via
end-effectors. Although the environmental interaction cannot be detected by any
sensors (hence unknown), passivity allows us to have natural interaction. An
analysis shows that the behavior of the actual system mimics that of a nominal
model as the control gain goes to infinity, which implies that the proposed
approach is an admittance controller. However, because the control gain cannot
grow infinitely in practice, the performance limitation according to the
achievable control gain is also analyzed. The result of this analysis indicates
that the performance in the sense of infinite norm increases linearly with the
control gain. In the experiments, the proposed properties were verified using 1
degree-of-freedom testbench, and an actual powered upper-limb exoskeleton was
used to lift and maneuver the unknown payload.Comment: Accepted in IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (T-MECH
装着可能な腕外骨格パワーアシストスーツの開発
As the focal point of this paper, we introduce the development of a light and wearable
exoskeleton controlled by force signals for upper extremity augmentations to support the
elbow and shoulder joints. In order to avoid hindering the wearer and completely achieve
all intended upper limb movements when wearing the exoskeleton, the flexion and extension
movements of the elbow and shoulder joints are actively powered to support the wearer
while the other two degrees of freedom (DoFs) of the shoulder joints are freely passive. We
further demonstrate the experimental results to validate the degrees of freedom of the
exoskeleton and verify its power assistance using surface myoelectric potential
A flexible sensor technology for the distributed measurement of interaction pressure
We present a sensor technology for the measure of the physical human-robot interaction pressure developed in the last years at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. The system is composed of flexible matrices of opto-electronic sensors covered by a soft silicone cover. This sensory system is completely modular and scalable, allowing one to cover areas of any sizes and shapes, and to measure different pressure ranges. In this work we present the main application areas for this technology. A first generation of the system was used to monitor human-robot interaction in upper- (NEUROExos; Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna) and lower-limb (LOPES; University of Twente) exoskeletons for rehabilitation. A second generation, with increased resolution and wireless connection, was used to develop a pressure-sensitive foot insole and an improved human-robot interaction measurement systems. The experimental characterization of the latter system along with its validation on three healthy subjects is presented here for the first time. A perspective on future uses and development of the technology is finally drafted
Feedback Control of an Exoskeleton for Paraplegics: Toward Robustly Stable Hands-free Dynamic Walking
This manuscript presents control of a high-DOF fully actuated lower-limb
exoskeleton for paraplegic individuals. The key novelty is the ability for the
user to walk without the use of crutches or other external means of
stabilization. We harness the power of modern optimization techniques and
supervised machine learning to develop a smooth feedback control policy that
provides robust velocity regulation and perturbation rejection. Preliminary
evaluation of the stability and robustness of the proposed approach is
demonstrated through the Gazebo simulation environment. In addition,
preliminary experimental results with (complete) paraplegic individuals are
included for the previous version of the controller.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Control System Magazine. This version addresses
reviewers' concerns about the robustness of the algorithm and the motivation
for using such exoskeleton
Development of a Wearable Exoskeleton for Arm Rehabilitation
With the increasing population of aging and disabled individuals, the need for a more effective and efficient solutions is at peak, Powered Exoskeletons are wearable robots that can be attached to the disabled limb with the goal of adding power to, or rectifying the limb functionality , one of its application is rehabilitation. This study review relevant research, technologies and products, while critically analyzing them and addressing some of the current problem faced by the researchers in this field, such as the use EMG signal as a primary input to the controller. This research propose an adaptive EMG-based upper limb exoskeleton that is built on a fuzzy controller. The paper strives to propose a wearable general-user Exoskeleton, Built around an interactive gaming interface to engage the patients in the rehabilitation process. The games and exoskeleton assistance degree can be preset – on medical supervision – to different training patterns. Ultimately, the project strives to afford normal daily life for those who needs it
Feature Analysis for Classification of Physical Actions using surface EMG Data
Based on recent health statistics, there are several thousands of people with
limb disability and gait disorders that require a medical assistance. A robot
assisted rehabilitation therapy can help them recover and return to a normal
life. In this scenario, a successful methodology is to use the EMG signal based
information to control the support robotics. For this mechanism to function
properly, the EMG signal from the muscles has to be sensed and then the
biological motor intention has to be decoded and finally the resulting
information has to be communicated to the controller of the robot. An accurate
detection of the motor intention requires a pattern recognition based
categorical identification. Hence in this paper, we propose an improved
classification framework by identification of the relevant features that drive
the pattern recognition algorithm. Major contributions include a set of
modified spectral moment based features and another relevant inter-channel
correlation feature that contribute to an improved classification performance.
Next, we conducted a sensitivity analysis of the classification algorithm to
different EMG channels. Finally, the classifier performance is compared to that
of the other state-of the art algorithm
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