Human-machine interaction force control: using a model-referenced adaptive impedance device to control an index finger exoskeleton

Exoskeleton robots and their control methods have been extensively developed to aid post-stroke rehabilitation. Most of the existing methods using linear controllers are designed for position control and are not suitable for human-machine interaction (HMI) force control, as the interaction system between the human body and exoskeleton is uncertain and nonlinear. We present an approach for HMI force control via model reference adaptive impedance control (MRAIC) to solve this problem in case of index finger exoskeleton control. First, a dynamic HMI model, which is based on a position control inner loop, is formulated. Second, the theoretical MRAC framework is implemented in the control system. Then, the adaptive controllers are designed according to the Lyapunov stability theory. To verify the performance of the proposed method, we compare it with a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) method in the time domain with real experiments and in the frequency domain with simulations. The results illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method in solving the nonlinear HMI force control problem in hand exoskeleton.