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Design of general-purpose assistive exoskeleton robot controller for upper limbs

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Abstract

Though research and development on exoskeleton robots have been active recently, the results have limitations in terms of independence from robot platforms and capability for general purposes. This paper presents a novel control scheme named the general-purpose assistive exoskeleton controller (GAEC) for upper limb assistive exoskeleton robots. With only the joint position information used, GAEC is designed to be applicable to any type of upper limb exoskeleton robot platform assisting human worker’s common activities. GAEC works in two modes: (1) An external force is neutralized by generation of force with the same magnitude and the opposite direction. (2) The control system complies with the user’s own force while maintaining the force that compensates for the external force neutralized in the first mode. In addition to theoretical description of the controller, computer simulation was conducted for validation using a robot model adopted from related studies. Two exemplary working scenarios were considered in the simulation: lifting and moving an object, and tightening a bolt with a wrench.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2018R1D1 A1B07047744).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Design and Production Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea

    Hwiwon Seo

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea

    Sangyoon Lee

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  1. Hwiwon Seo
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Correspondence to Sangyoon Lee.

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Recommended by Editor Ja Choon Koo

Hwiwon Seo received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering at Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea in 2017. He is currently pursuing his M.S. degree in mechanical design and production engineering at Konkuk University. His research interests include robotics, control and exoskeleton robots.

Sangyoon Lee received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 2003. Since then, he has been a Professor at Konkuk University. He is serving as a Director for Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers and Korea Robotics Society. His research interests include robotics, control, and printed electronics.

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Seo, H., Lee, S. Design of general-purpose assistive exoskeleton robot controller for upper limbs. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 3509–3519 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0645-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0645-y

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