Cooperative Manipulation of Wearable Dual-Arm Exoskeletons Using Force Communication Between Partners

Abstract

In this article, physical assistance using haptic interaction is investigated to improve the motor ability of human, in which the interaction force from a partner adapts to the physical behavior of the human interaction. A theoretical framework of interactive tasks, including the “no computation” model and the “multisensory integration” model, has been established on wearable dual-arm exoskeletons. Based on these models, two region-based controllers, i.e., motion-coupled control and force-coupled control, have been proposed, and the stability of the closed-loop system by using these controllers has also been analyzed under the consideration of system nonlinearities, uncertainties, and the time-varying human-robot interactions. In addition, the proposed controllers have reduced the motion conflicts between the human and the robot in a steady manner. Finally, we experimentally verify the proposed models during an interactive target tracking task and the experimental results demonstrate that collaborative exoskeleton robots using the proposed controllers can provide humanlike assistance, and indicate that movement goal exchange is the key to physical assistance.