Virtual Constraint Control of a Powered Prosthetic Leg: From Simulation to Experiments With Transfemoral Amputees

Recent powered (or robotic) prosthetic legs independently control different joints and time periods of the gait cycle, resulting in control parameters and switching rules that can be difficult to tune by clinicians. This challenge might be addressed by a unifying control model used by recent bipedal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on robotics 2014-12, Vol.30 (6), p.1455-1471
Main Authors: Gregg, Robert D., Lenzi, Tommaso, Hargrove, Levi J., Sensinger, Jonathon W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Control systems
Experiments
Feedback linearization
Gait
Legged locomotion
Mathematical models
Movement
Prostheses
Prosthetics
Rehabilitation robotics
Robot control
Robotics
Robots
Robustness
Simulation
virtual constraints
Walking
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Summary:Recent powered (or robotic) prosthetic legs independently control different joints and time periods of the gait cycle, resulting in control parameters and switching rules that can be difficult to tune by clinicians. This challenge might be addressed by a unifying control model used by recent bipedal robots, in which virtual constraints define joint patterns as functions of a monotonic variable that continuously represents the gait cycle phase. In the first application of virtual constraints to amputee locomotion, this paper derives exact and approximate control laws for a partial feedback linearization to enforce virtual constraints on a prosthetic leg. We then encode a human-inspired invariance property called effective shape into virtual constraints for the stance period. After simulating the robustness of the partial feedback linearization to clinically meaningful conditions, we experimentally implement this control strategy on a powered transfemoral leg. We report the results of three amputee subjects walking overground and at variable cadences on a treadmill, demonstrating the clinical viability of this novel control approach.
ISSN:1552-3098
1941-0468
DOI:10.1109/TRO.2014.2361937