TITLE:
CPG Human Motion Phase Recognition Algorithm for a Hip Exoskeleton with VSA Actuator
AUTHORS:
Jiaxuan Li, Feng Jiang, Longhai Zhang, Xun Wang, Jinnan Duan, Baichun Wei, Xiulai Wang, Ningling Ma, Yutao Zhang
KEYWORDS:
Variable Stiffness Actuator, Plate Spring, CPG Algorithm Convergence Criterion, Human Motion Phase Recognition, Simulink and Adams Co-Simulation
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Signal and Information Processing,
Vol.15 No.2,
May
31,
2024
ABSTRACT: Due to the dynamic stiffness characteristics of human joints, it is easy to cause impact and disturbance on normal movements during exoskeleton assistance. This not only brings strict requirements for exoskeleton control design, but also makes it difficult to improve assistive level. The Variable Stiffness Actuator (VSA), as a physical variable stiffness mechanism, has the characteristics of dynamic stiffness adjustment and high stiffness control bandwidth, which is in line with the stiffness matching experiment. However, there are still few works exploring the assistive human stiffness matching experiment based on VSA. Therefore, this paper designs a hip exoskeleton based on VSA actuator and studies CPG human motion phase recognition algorithm. Firstly, this paper puts forward the requirements of variable stiffness experimental design and the output torque and variable stiffness dynamic response standards based on human lower limb motion parameters. Plate springs are used as elastic elements to establish the mechanical principle of variable stiffness, and a small variable stiffness actuator is designed based on the plate spring. Then the corresponding theoretical dynamic model is established and analyzed. Starting from the CPG phase recognition algorithm, this paper uses perturbation theory to expand the first-order CPG unit, obtains the phase convergence equation and verifies the phase convergence when using hip joint angle as the input signal with the same frequency, and then expands the second-order CPG unit under the premise of circular limit cycle and analyzes the frequency convergence criterion. Afterwards, this paper extracts the plate spring modal from Abaqus and generates the neutral file of the flexible body model to import into Adams, and conducts torque-stiffness one-way loading and reciprocating loading experiments on the variable stiffness mechanism. After that, Simulink is used to verify the validity of the criterion. Finally, based on the above criterions, the signal mean value is removed using feedback structure to complete the phase recognition algorithm for the human hip joint angle signal, and the convergence is verified using actual human walking data on flat ground.