Towards recognition of control variables for an exoskeleton

Abstract

In this paper we present a methodology to drive the end effector of a robotic manipulator, to which is attached a human hand, in order to follow the human's intention of movement. This set-up is inspired from a neuro-robotics scenario in order to develop systems for restoring motor functionalities in injured and disabled people. Three typical tasks are considered, namely the robot not to interfere with the human's motion, to assist a person with limited motion capabilities, and finally to be used from the subjects for rehabilitation reasons. The proposed controllers utilize a force control in two different ways, with inner position loop and with inner velocity loop. The derived controllers attempt to incorporate neuro-scientific models results. Also, stability and robust analysis is presented. The properties of the proposed methodology are verified through non-trivial computer simulations