Impedance Modulation Control of a Lower-Limb Exoskeleton to Assist Sit-to-Stand Movements

As an important movement of the daily living activities, sit-to-stand (STS) movement is usually a difficult task facing elderly and dependent people. In this article, a novel impedance modulation strategy of a lower-limb exoskeleton is proposed to provide appropriate power and balance assistance during STS movements while preserving the wearer's control priority. The impedance modulation control strategy ensures adaptation of the mechanical impedance of the human-exoskeleton system toward a desired one requiring less wearer's effect while reinforcing the wearer's balance control ability during STS movements. A human joint torque observer is designed to estimate the joint torques developed by the wearer using joint position kinematics instead of electromyography or force sensors; a time-varying desired impedance model is proposed according to the wearer's lower-limb motion ability. A virtual environmental force is designed for balance reinforcement control. Stability and robustness of the proposed method are theoretically analyzed. Simulations are implemented to illustrate the characteristics and performance of the proposed approach. Experiments with four healthy subjects are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method and show satisfactory results in terms of appropriate power assist and balance reinforcement.

Automated summary

This article proposes a novel impedance modulation strategy for a lower-limb exoskeleton to provide appropriate power and balance assistance during STS movements, while enhancing the wearer's balance control ability. By designing a human joint torque observer and a time-varying desired impedance model, along with a virtual environmental force for balance reinforcement control, the effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated through experiments with healthy subjects.