Force-mode control of rotary series elastic actuators in a lower extremity exoskeleton using model-inverse time delay control (MiTDC)

For physical human-robot interaction (pHRI), it has been an important issue to control the output force of actuators. The aim of this study was to apply a new control strategy, named model-inverse time delay control (MiTDC), to series elastic actuators (SEA) in a lower extremity exoskeleton, even in the presence of uncertainties from pHRI. The law for time delay control (TDC) is derived and implementation issues are discussed, including the design of the state observer and the selection of the nominal value of the control distribution coefficient. Additionally, a new concept, a new reference position using the inverse of model dynamics, is introduced to realize satisfactory tracking performance without delay. Experimental results showed that the suggested controller achieved satisfactory performance without accurate information on system parameters, requiring only a nominal value of the control distribution coefficient.