Design of a Lower Limb Exoskeleton: Robust Control, Simulation and Experimental Results

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a robust control algorithm to be applied in a knee and ankle joint exoskeleton designed for rehabilitation of flexion/extension movements. The goal of the control law is to follow the trajectory of a straight leg extension routine in a sitting position. This routine is commonly used to rehabilitate an injury on an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and it is applied to the knee and ankle joints. Moreover, the paper presents the development and implementation of the robotic structure of the ankle joint to integrate it into an exoskeleton for gait rehabilitation. The development of the dynamic model and the implementation of the control algorithm in simulation and experimental tests are presented, showing that the proposed control guarantees the convergence of the tracking error.

Keywords

• robotic exoskeleton
• rehabilitation robotics
• robust control algorithm
• sliding mode control
• ankle and knee biomechanics