A real-time virtual manipulator simulation platform based on FPGA

The high-performance auxiliary manipulator has incomparable advantages for the rehabilitation training of people with dyskinesia. As rehabilitation training tasks become more complex and real manipulators have high costs, researches on convenient and low-cost simulation technology have great significance. Traditionally, the simulation of the manipulator is mostly based on software, which has low efficiency and the application prospect is not as wide as the hardware. Compared with software simulation, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) shows more advantages especially in the real-time simulation. In this paper, a proportional-derivative (PD) controller is designed based on the two-degree-of-freedom (2-dof) manipulator model, and the hardware is implemented on the FPGA chip. By comparing MATLAB simulation results with hardware implementation results, the simulation platform is verified to be high-performance in real-time computational power, which meets the requirement for the high-speed control in rehabilitation applications. This platform is helpful for rehabilitation training of patients by using mechanical devices and has potential application prospect in the field of real-time brain-computer interface (BCI).