Impedance Control for Robotic Rehabilitation: A Robust Markovian Approach.

The human-robot interaction has played an important role in rehabilitation robotics and impedance control has been used in the regulation of interaction forces between the robot actuator and human limbs. Series elastic actuators (SEAs) have been an efficient solution in the design of this kind of robotic application. Standard implementations of impedance control with SEAs require an internal force control loop for guaranteeing the desired impedance output.

Global Kalman filter approaches to estimate absolute angles of lower limb segments.

Background: In this paper we propose the use of global Kalman filters (KFs) to estimate absolute angles of lower limb segments. Standard approaches adopt KFs to improve the performance of inertial sensors based on individual link configurations. In consequence, for a multi-body system like a lower limb exoskeleton, the inertial measurements of one link (e.

Inertial Sensor Error Reduction through Calibration and Sensor Fusion.

This paper presents the comparison between cooperative and local Kalman Filters (KF) for estimating the absolute segment angle, under two calibration conditions. A simplified calibration, that can be replicated in most laboratories; and a complex calibration, similar to that applied by commercial vendors. The cooperative filters use information from either all inertial sensors attached to the body, Matricial KF; or use information from the inertial sensors and the potentiometers of an exoskeleton, Markovian KF.

Markov jump linear systems-based position estimation for lower limb exoskeletons.

In this paper, we deal with Markov Jump Linear Systems-based filtering applied to robotic rehabilitation. The angular positions of an impedance-controlled exoskeleton, designed to help stroke and spinal cord injured patients during walking rehabilitation, are estimated. Standard position estimate approaches adopt Kalman filters (KF) to improve the performance of inertial measurement units (IMUs) based on individual link configurations.

Experimental investigation on adaptive robust controller designs applied to constrained manipulators.

In this paper, two interlaced studies are presented. The first is directed to the design and construction of a dynamic 3D force/moment sensor. The device is applied to provide a feedback signal of forces and moments exerted by the robotic end-effector.