Human postural ankle torque control model during standing posture with a series elastic muscle-tendon actuator

Abstract

The main motivation behind the creation of a compliant actuation system is to provide safety, capability of storing energy, and improved performance levels in dynamic behavior of the mechanical human ankle. In this paper, a torsional flat spring (TFS) is proposed to provide high compliance and deformation values for human ankle series elastic muscle-tendon actuator system (HA-SEMTAS). The proposed torsional flat spring uses two torsional flat spiral spring in opposite directions, as the torsional flat spiral spring generates torque only in one direction. First, we present the characteristics of the TFS for an ankle joint, and the design and modeling of the HA-SEMTAS are developed. Modelling of the HA-SEMTAS simulates the responses of fluctuations in the center of mass and center of pressure and offers the possibility of measuring sensor activation, decomposition of reactive torque and participation of each set of muscle groups to balance posture. In order to control ankle angles and torque of Human system, torque controllers (PID and PD-feedforward) are generated for (HA-SEMTAS). The controller inputs are torsional flat spring position errors and error rates. Feedforward and integral action were applied to reduce the steady-state error of the system. It is seen that PID + ff of the system developed here is robust to step and ramp-type disturbances. Real-time controllers are embedded in GoogolTech GT-800 Industrial PC. Experimental results confirm that the step tracking of human upright posture behavior is satisfactory and overall system stability has improved using the proposed controller and compliant actuation system. It is also shown that PD + feedforward yields better performance than PID controller.