Human-in-the-Loop Modeling and Bilateral Skill Transfer Control of Soft Exoskeleton

Soft exoskeletons (exosuits) are expected to provide a comfortable wearing experience and compliant assistance compared with traditional rigid exoskeleton robots. In this paper, an exosuit with twisted string actuators (TSAs) is developed to provide high-strength and variable-stiffness actuation for...

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Main Authors: Jiajun Xu, Kaizhen Huang, Mengcheng Zhao, Jinfu Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-12-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/23/7845
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author Jiajun Xu
Kaizhen Huang
Mengcheng Zhao
Jinfu Liu
author_facet Jiajun Xu
Kaizhen Huang
Mengcheng Zhao
Jinfu Liu
author_sort Jiajun Xu
collection DOAJ
description Soft exoskeletons (exosuits) are expected to provide a comfortable wearing experience and compliant assistance compared with traditional rigid exoskeleton robots. In this paper, an exosuit with twisted string actuators (TSAs) is developed to provide high-strength and variable-stiffness actuation for hemiplegic patients. By formulating the analytic model of the TSA and decoding the human impedance characteristic, the human-exosuit coupled dynamic model is constructed. An adaptive impedance controller is designed to transfer the skills of the patient’s healthy limb (HL) to the bilateral impaired limb (IL) with a mirror training strategy, including the movement trajectory and stiffness profiles. A reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm is proposed to optimize the robotic assistance by adapting the impedance model parameters to the subject’s performance. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1424-8220
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publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher MDPI AG
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series Sensors
spelling doaj-art-5fdfda7200434ef1b3ffde00174f0dd82024-12-13T16:32:58ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202024-12-012423784510.3390/s24237845Human-in-the-Loop Modeling and Bilateral Skill Transfer Control of Soft ExoskeletonJiajun Xu0Kaizhen Huang1Mengcheng Zhao2Jinfu Liu3College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, ChinaCollege of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, ChinaCollege of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, ChinaChangzhou Vocational Institute of Industry Technology, Changzhou 213164, ChinaSoft exoskeletons (exosuits) are expected to provide a comfortable wearing experience and compliant assistance compared with traditional rigid exoskeleton robots. In this paper, an exosuit with twisted string actuators (TSAs) is developed to provide high-strength and variable-stiffness actuation for hemiplegic patients. By formulating the analytic model of the TSA and decoding the human impedance characteristic, the human-exosuit coupled dynamic model is constructed. An adaptive impedance controller is designed to transfer the skills of the patient’s healthy limb (HL) to the bilateral impaired limb (IL) with a mirror training strategy, including the movement trajectory and stiffness profiles. A reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm is proposed to optimize the robotic assistance by adapting the impedance model parameters to the subject’s performance. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/23/7845soft exoskeletonadaptive impedance controlreinforcement learningskill transfer
spellingShingle Jiajun Xu
Kaizhen Huang
Mengcheng Zhao
Jinfu Liu
Human-in-the-Loop Modeling and Bilateral Skill Transfer Control of Soft Exoskeleton
Sensors
soft exoskeleton
adaptive impedance control
reinforcement learning
skill transfer
title Human-in-the-Loop Modeling and Bilateral Skill Transfer Control of Soft Exoskeleton
title_full Human-in-the-Loop Modeling and Bilateral Skill Transfer Control of Soft Exoskeleton
title_fullStr Human-in-the-Loop Modeling and Bilateral Skill Transfer Control of Soft Exoskeleton
title_full_unstemmed Human-in-the-Loop Modeling and Bilateral Skill Transfer Control of Soft Exoskeleton
title_short Human-in-the-Loop Modeling and Bilateral Skill Transfer Control of Soft Exoskeleton
title_sort human in the loop modeling and bilateral skill transfer control of soft exoskeleton
topic soft exoskeleton
adaptive impedance control
reinforcement learning
skill transfer
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/23/7845
work_keys_str_mv AT jiajunxu humanintheloopmodelingandbilateralskilltransfercontrolofsoftexoskeleton
AT kaizhenhuang humanintheloopmodelingandbilateralskilltransfercontrolofsoftexoskeleton
AT mengchengzhao humanintheloopmodelingandbilateralskilltransfercontrolofsoftexoskeleton
AT jinfuliu humanintheloopmodelingandbilateralskilltransfercontrolofsoftexoskeleton