A Novel Position-Based Impedance Control Method for Bionic Legged Robots’ HDU

A walking assistance apparatus which can promote gait training for motor palsy patients and outdoor walking for the elderly was developed. Our prototype uses a novel spatial parallel link mechanism and restraint free type of equipment. The apparatus supports complete leg alignment, including the soles of the feet from under the soles with flat steps, and assists walking behavior at the ankle, knee, and hip joints simultaneously without the use of Velcro tape. We proposed the control method according to the purpose of the user. For example, to promote gait training, this apparatus can select the impedance control method. User's legs are assisted along the trajectory with the ideal gait as well as walking. To promote outdoor walking for the elderly, this apparatus can select the torque control method. The apparatus calculates the necessary torques of each joint according to the posture and motion of the apparatus and user. In the case of the impedance control method, by adjusting the natural frequency of the ideal dynamic equation for the flat steps under the soles, the user felt it was easier to walk by frequency entrainment. On the other hand, to promote outdoor walking of the user, this apparatus has to be used not only on the flat ground but also on stairs or slopes with freedom behaviors, and it has to make the user feel comfortable. To address this problem, the torque control method proposed to use real-time acceleration data instead of using the template trajectory. By using this method, the subject could walk on the slope and stairs continuously. Finally, %MVC of the user's EMG while walking equipped with this apparatus was measured, and the influence of the difference using between the impedance and torque control method was confirmed by interviewing the subjects. From the result, the impedance control method assisted the motion of kicking the ground, and the torque control method assisted the motion of raising-up the leg. Therefore, the impedance control method is good for gait training, and the torque control method is good for walk promotion.

A hydraulic drive unit (HDU), applied in each joint of a hydraulic driven legged robot, usually adopts the impedance control outer loop based on the hydraulic position or the force control inner loop during the motion process. When the hydraulic control adopts closed-loop force control, its control performance can directly determine the control performance of the impedance control outer loop. Therefore, it is significant to design a high-accuracy force control method aimed at HDUs. In this paper, aiming at the above research concept, the force control system of the HDU is introduced first, and the lack of the force control performance is studied under different working conditions on the HDU performance test platform. Second, a model-based variable input controller (MVIC) is designed to improve the force control performance. Finally, the control performance of the MVIC is verified on the HDU performance test platform. The experimental results show that the MVIC can greatly improve the force control accuracy under different working conditions and that the controller has good robustness. The above research results can provide important reference and lay the experimental foundation for force-based impedance control.

This paper proposes an intelligent massage control system by using multi-fingered robot hand with hybrid impedance and force control, which is able to create the movement and force of robot to behave as similar as the human’s massage. Therefore, the various massage points, such as the changing of hardness and softness of human skin muscle condition, can be appropriately controlled by using hybrid impedance and force control method. The impedance control is used to control the lateral position of massage on the human skin muscle. The perpendicular direction one, while force control is carried out for the vertical direction on human skin muscle. This paper also gives a modeling of human skin muscle through robot perception of impedance to decide the parameter of impedance controller. The control strategy using a hybrid impedance and force control to implement an adaptive control system is presented, when human condition is changed with soft and hard skin muscle. For the robot fingertip force, PI servo compensation is used together with impedance control. Based on using both impedance and PI servo compensation, the effectiveness of the massage position and force control is shown through actual massage motion experiments.

An improved method combined SMC and MLESO for impedance control of legged robots’ electro-hydraulic servo system

Each joint of a hydraulic-driven legged robot adopts a highly integrated hydraulic drive unit (HDU), which features a high power–weight ratio. However, most HDUs are throttling-valve-controlled cylinder systems, which exhibit high energy losses. By contrast, pump control systems offer a high efficiency. Nevertheless, their response ability is unsatisfactory. To fully utilize the advantages of pump and valve control systems, in this study, a new type of pump–valve compound drive system (PCDS) is designed, which can not only effectively reduce the energy loss, but can also ensure the response speed and response accuracy of the HDUs in robot joints to satisfy the performance requirements of robots. Herein, considering the force control requirements of energy conservation, high precision, and fast response of the robot joint HDU, a nonlinear mathematical model of the PCDS force control system is first introduced. In addition, pressure–flow nonlinearity, friction nonlinearity, load complexity and variability, and other factors affecting the system are considered, and a novel force control method based on quantitative feedback theory (QFT) and a disturbance torque observer (DTO) is designed, which is denoted as QFT–DTOC herein. This method improves the control accuracy and robustness of the force control system, reduces the effect of the disturbance torque on the control performance of the servo motor, and improves the overall force control performance of the system. Finally, experimental verification is performed using the PCDS performance test platform. The experimental results and quantitative data show that the QFT–DTOC proposed herein can significantly improve the force control performance of the PCDS. The relevant force control method can be used as a bottom-control method for the hydraulic servo system to provide a foundation for implementing the top-level trajectory planning of the robot.

The best exoskeleton control strategy depends on the task, motivating the development and analysis of an exoskeleton capable of position, force, and impedance control. In this paper, we implement and compare the three controller types via sliding mode control on a custom-built pneumatic cylinder ankle exoskeleton. To evaluate each controller's performance, the exoskeleton was tested on the benchtop and with human subject experiments. With the position controller, the exoskeleton achieved an root-mean-square error (RMSE) of under 5 deg for both the benchtop and human tests. It had a bandwidth of approximately 12 rad/s. The force controller tracked sinusoidal trajectories acceptably well at low frequencies (15% of force range at 6 rad/s), with a bandwidth of approximately 24 rad/s. The error was significantly higher (RMSE of 24% of force range) for the more biologically relevant trajectory. The impedance controller demonstrated the desired spring-like behavior, with position RMSE generally under 5 deg compared to expected position. All three controllers worked equally well for benchtop and human tests. Thus, a pneumatically powered ankle exoskeleton with sliding mode control is capable of accurate position and impedance control and is capable of marginally acceptable force control.

This paper discusses a new method of impedance control that has been successfully implemented on the master robot of a teleoperation system. The method involves calibrating the robot to quantify the effect of adjustable controller parameters on the impedances along its different axes. The empirical equations relating end-effector impedance to the controller’s feedback gains are obtained by performing system identification tests along individual axes of the robot. With these equations, online control of end-effector stiffness and damping is possible without having to monitor joint torques or solving complex algorithms. Hard contact conditions and compliant interfaces have been effectively demonstrated on a telemanipulation test-bed using appropriate combinations of stiffness and damping settings obtained by this method. Since the method is general in nature and can be used for finding possible relations between controllable parameters and quantifiable output behaviour of a system, it can be extended to calibrating and controlling impedances in poorly modeled robot-actuator systems. A limitation of this method is that the actuator being modeled must have very little friction.

This paper proposes an intelligent massage control system by using multi-fingered robot hand with hybrid impedance control, which is able to create the movement and the force of robot such as the human's massage. Therefore, the various massage points, such as the change of the stiffness of human skin muscle, can be controlled by using impedance control method. The hybrid impedance control is comprised of the two methods of the position-based and the force-based impedance control were applied. The position-based impedance control is used to control the lateral position of massage on the human skin muscle. On the other hand, the force-based impedance control is used to control the force of the vertical direction on human skin muscle. This paper also gives the identification of human skin muscle through robot perception of impedance to decide the parameter of impedance controller. The control strategy using impedance control to implement an adaptive control system is presented, when human condition is changed with soft and hard skin muscle. Effectiveness of massage control system by using multi- fingered robot hand with hybrid impedance control is demonstrator through actual massage experiments of pushing and rubbing motion.

일반 산업용 로봇의 위치정밀도는 100㎛ 정도임에 반해, 정밀부품의 조립공차는 수십 ㎛ 이내이다. 또한, 조립공차가 작을 경우 미소한 위치/각도 오차에 의해 재밍 또는 웨징이 쉽게 발생하며, 위치제어 기반의 로봇인 경우 부품 조립 시 접촉력을 적절히 조절하지 못하여 조립물이 파손될 가능성이 크다. 이와 같은 문제를 해결하기 위하여 접촉력에 능동적으로 반응할 수 있는 힘제어 기반의 로봇조립에 대한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 기존의 산업용 로봇에 적용하기 용이하도록 위치제어 기반의 머니퓰레이터에 힘제어를 적용할 수 있는 시스템을 구현하였다. 머니퓰레이터에 어드미턴스 필터를 이용한 임피던스 제어를 적용하여 안정적인 접촉운동을 구현하였다. 또한, 임피던스 제어와 blind 검색을 적용하여 정밀부품을 조립할 수 있음을 검증하였다.

Legged mobile manipulators are receiving much more attention. Mobile platforms can infinitely expand the workspace of robotic arms, providing more possibilities for robot application scenarios. Compared with wheeled mobile manipulators, legged mobile manipulators have higher requirements for cooperative control of legged robots and robotic arms. This work decouples the control of the robotic arm and the legged robot. On the legged robot side, we explicitly estimate the wrench exerted by the robotic arm on the base and bring it into the legged robot’s dynamics, and then use a nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC) to control the legged robot. On the robotics arm side, we adopt an impedance controller to realize the end-effector’s force control, and the introduction of impedance control has improved the safety and interactivity of legged mobile manipulators. We conducted experiments on physical robot to compare the differences between decoupled control and independent control, and the results show that the stability and robustness of robot systems have improved using decoupled control.

Capacitive impedance control enables a power converter to mimic the voltage-current characteristics of a physical passive capacitor actively; however, existing impedance control methods cannot achieve accurate capacitive control due to parameter errors. This digest proposes a capacitive impedance control method with adaptive parameter capability, which is adaptive to changes in the parameters to maintain the capacitance of the active capacitor to the given reference with high precision. A capacitor bank volume-optimized design procedure of the active capacitor in high-power applications considering reliability design constraints is proposed as well. A 16kVA case study demonstrates the control method and design results.

This paper considers a power assist system of elbow as an example of human-assist system and describes impedance control of it. The assist system is required not only to assist the movement of elbow but also to be strictly stable. Impedance control based on position control is often used for the assist devices because the control system is simpler than that of the devices based on force control. But if the impedance parameters are made to be small in order to get good maneuverability, the system becomes unstable because of the delay of the position control system especially when the assisted tool touches high stiffness environment such as a wall. So, an impedance control method based on position control with passive elements is proposed. As a result, the stability and the effects on time delay of the proposed system showed good performance.

The interaction force control problem for the object manipulated by the dual-arm manipulator with the unknown environment is addressed in this paper. An adaptive dual-loop impedance control scheme is designed to meet the three control targets, including the trajectory tracking control of the object, the internal force control of the object with the two arms, and the interaction force control of the object with the unknown environment. Firstly, an adaptive variable impedance control method is proposed in the outer loop to copy with the unknown stiffness and position of the environment. Secondly, an impedance control scheme based on the internal force is designed in the inner loop to plan the internal force and the modified position supplied with the outer-loop control. Thirdly, to realize the reference trajectory supplied with the inner-loop control, the virtual decomposition control (VDC) method is incorporated, which is a recursive adaptive control progress, so that the unknown dynamics of the manipulators is acceptable and the computation complexity is also very low to satisfy the real-time control requirement. The stability verifications of the inner-loop impedance control and the VDC method are given based on the Lyapunov method, and the stability analysis of the outer-loop impedance control is obtained using the Routh criterion. Finally, a plane dual-arm robotic manipulator with three degrees of freedom is used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

In this work, an impedance control method is developed and applied to two cable-driven mechanisms. The first one is a classical problem of driving a rigid body in 3-D space by seven cables. Our approach is based on the impedance control of rigid link manipulators which is then extended to include the specific considerations of the cable-driven mechanisms such as maintaining the tensile force in the cables. The method is then extended to the serial multibody cable-driven mechanisms. The motivation for this problem is the possible application of cable-driven systems in the rehabilitative exercises such as physical and/or occupational therapies. In this case, the human body acts as a multibody system which is driven by cables attached. The impedance control in such application facilitates the comfort of the patient by providing the necessary compliance while moving the body parts. The formulation of the problem is developed using Lagrange’s equation and the control input (which is the cable forces) is calculated based on the position and/or force feedback from the multibody. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented method.

The traditional low-frequency oscillation suppression strategy in power systems relies on the POD (power oscillation damping) method to derive oscillation deviation signals, but this method is susceptible to interference from lead lag compensation, resulting in limited effectiveness in suppressing low-frequency oscillations. In view of this, the article developed a new method for low-frequency oscillation suppression based on self impedance control. Specifically, a low-frequency oscillation suppression model for the power system was first constructed, and the relevant suppression parameters were adjusted through self impedance control technology. Subsequently, a specialized low-frequency oscillation suppressor was designed to achieve effective control of low-frequency oscillations in the power system. Experimental verification shows that the self impedance control method not only has significant suppression effect, but also performs well in terms of deviation peak, oscillation frequency, recovery time, etc., exhibiting good nonlinear characteristics and fast attenuation speed. In addition, this method also has high reliability and practical value, providing strong support for reducing safety risks in power system operation.