Fuzzy neurocontrol of an exoskeletal robot for human elbow motion support

Abstract

We deal with exoskeletal robots for human (especially for physically weak people) motion support. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy neurocontrol method for a 1-DOF exoskeletal robot to support the human elbow motion. The proposed controller controls the angular position and impedance of the exoskeletal robot system based on vague biological signals that reflect the human subject's intention. Skin surface electromyogram (EMG) signals and the generated wrist force by the human subject during the elbow motion are used as input information of the controller. Due to the adaptation ability of the fuzzy neurocontrol, the robot is flexible enough to deal with vague biological signals such as the EMG. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.