CPG Human Motion Phase Recognition Algorithm for a Hip Exoskeleton with VSA Actuator

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.

Nonlinear Analysis of Axial-load and Stress Distribution for Threaded Connection

Analytical method for the distributions of axial-load and stress is based on elastic assumption, but the threaded connections are often in plastic deformation stage in practice. Meanwhile the strain in the threaded connection is difficult to measure. So it is necessary to study the reliable numerical method. At present neither the convergence analysis of the computational results nor the elastic-plastic analysis in the loading-unloading process are studied. In this paper, von Mises plasticity and kinematic hardening model is used to describe the material response. A new convergence criterion for nonlinear finite element analysis of the loading-unloading process is proposed. An axisymmetric finite element model according to the proposed convergence criterion is developed and used to analyze the distributions of axial-load and stress. It can be conclude that the stress distribution analysis is more dependent on the mesh density than the axial-load distribution analysis. The stress distribution result indicates that with increasing of applied load, the engaged threads close to the nut-bearing surface become plastic firstly. The axial-load distribution result reveals that the load percentage carried by single thread depends on the position of thread and load intensity. When the load is relatively small, the applied load is mainly carried by the engaged threads near the nut-bearing surface, when the load is larger, the differences of percentages for all threads become small. The proposed convergence analyzing procedure is applicable for other nonlinear analyses. The obtained distributions of axial-load and stress can be a reference of engineering application.

Relative efficiency appraisal of discrete choice modeling algorithms using small-scale maximum likelihood estimator through empirically tailored computing environment

Discrete choice models are widely used in multiple sectors such as transportation, health, energy, and marketing, etc., where the model estimation is usually carried out by using commercial software. Nonetheless, tailored computer codes offer modellers greater flexibility and control of unique modelling situation. Aligned with empirically tailored computing environment, this research discusses the relative performance of six different algorithms of a discrete choice model using three key performance measures： convergence time, number of iterations, and iteration time. The computer codes are developed by using Visual Basic Application （VBA）. Maximum likelihood function （MLF） is formulated and the mathematical relationships of gradient and Hessian matrix are analytically derived to carry out the estimation process. The estimated parameter values clearly suggest that convergence criterion and initial guessing of parameters are the two critical factors in determining the overall estimation performance of a custom-built discrete choice model.

CONSENSUS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF LINEAR INTERCONNECTED MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS

We deal with the state consensus problem of a general Linear Interconnected Multi-Agent System （LIMAS） under a time-invariant and directed communication topology. Firstly, we propose a linear consensus protocol in a general form, which consists of state feedback of the agent itself and feedback form of the relative states between the agent and its neighbors. Secondly, a state-linear-transformation is applied to equivalently transform the state consensus problem into a partial stability problem. Based on the partial stability theory, we derive a sufficient and necessary criterion of consensus convergence, which is expressed via the Hurwitz stability of a real matrix constructed from the parameters of the agent models and the protocols, and present an analytical formula of the consensus function. Lastly, we propose a design procedure of the gain matrices in the protocol by solving a bilinear matrix inequality.