EMG based approach for wearer-centered control of a knee joint actuated orthosis

This paper presents a new human-exoskeleton interaction approach to provide torque assistance of the lower limb movements upon wearer's intention. The exoskeleton interacts with the wearer; the shank-foot orthosis system behaves as a second order dynamic system with gravity and elastic torque balance. The intention of the wearer is estimated by using a realistic musculoskeletal model of the muscles actuating the knee joint. The identification process concerns the inertial parameters of the shank-foot, the exoskeleton and the musculotendon parameters. Real-time experiments, conducted on a healthy subject during flexion and extension movements of the knee joint, have shown satisfactory results in terms of tracking error, intention detection and assistance torque generation. This approach guarantees asymptotic stability of the shank-foot-exoskeleton and adaptation to human-exoskeleton interaction. Moreover, the proposed control law is robust with respect to external disturbances.