An EMG-Based Biomimetic Variable Stiffness Modulation Strategy for Bilateral Motor Skills Relearning of Upper Limb Elbow Joint Rehabilitation

Bilateral rehabilitation systems with bilateral or unilateral assistive robots have been developed for hemiplegia patients to recover their one-side paralysis.However,the compliant robotic assistance to promote bilateral inter-limb coordination remains a challenge that should be addressed.In this paper,a biomimetic variable stiffness modulation strategy for the Variable Stiffness Actuator(VSA)integrated robotic is proposed to improve bilateral limb coordination and promote bilateral motor skills relearning.An Electromyography(EMG)-driven synergy reference stiffness estimation model of the upper limb elbow joint is developed to reproduce the muscle synergy effect on the affected side limb by independent real-time stiffness control.Additionally,the bilateral impedance control is incorporated for realizing compliant patient-robot interaction.Preliminary experiments were carried out to evaluate the tracking performance and investigate the multiple task intensities’influence on bilateral motor skills relearning.Experimental results evidence the proposed method could enable bilateral motor task skills relearning with wide-range task intensities and further promote bilateral inter-limb coordination.

Optimal Variable Stiffness Control and Its Applications in Bionic Robotic Joints:A Review

Variable Stiffness Actuation(VSA)is an efficient,safe,and robust actuation technology for bionic robotic joints that have emerged in recent decades.By introducing a variable stiffness elastomer in the actuation system,the mechanical-electric energy conversion between the motor and the load could be adjusted on-demand,thereby improving the performance of the actuator,such as the peak power reduction,energy saving,bionic actuation,etc.At present,the VSA technology has achieved fruitful research results in designing the actuator mechanism and the stiffness adjustment servo,which has been widely applied in articulated robots,exoskeletons,prostheses,etc.However,how to optimally control the stiffness of VSAs in different application scenarios for better actuator performance is still challenging,where there is still a lack of unified cognition and viewpoints.Therefore,from the perspective of optimal VSA performance,this paper first introduces some typical structural design and servo control techniques of common VSAs and then explains the methods and applications of the Optimal Variable Stiffness Control(OVSC)approaches by theoretically introducing different types of OVSC mathematical models and summarizing OVSC methods with varying optimization goals and application scenarios or cases.In addition,the current research challenges of OVSC methods and possible innovative insights are also presented and discussed in-depth to facilitate the future development of VSA control.

A Variable Stiffness Soft Gripper Using Granular Jamming and Biologically Inspired Pneumatic Muscles

As the domains, in which robots operate change the objects a robot may be required to grasp and manipulate, are likely to vary sig- nificantly and often. Furthermore there is increasing likelihood that in the future robots will work collaboratively alongside people. There has therefore been interest in the development of biologically inspired robot designs which take inspiration from nature. This paper pre- sents the design and testing of a variable stiffness, three fingered soft gripper, which uses pneumatic muscles to actuate the fingers and granular jamming to vary their stiffness. This gripper is able to adjust its stiffness depending upon how fragile/deformable the object being grasped is. It is also lightweight and low inertia, making it better suited to operation near people. Each finger is formed from a cylindrical rubber bladder filled with a granular material. It is shown how decreasing the pressure inside the finger increases the jamming effect and raises finger stiffness. The paper shows experimentally how the finger stiffness can be increased from 21 N·m^-1 to 71 N·m^-1. The paper also describes the kinematics of the fingers and demonstrates how they can be position-controlled at a range of different stiffness values.

Design and Analysis of a 2-DOF Actuator with Variable Stiffness Based on Leaf Springs

Variable Stiffness Actuator(VSA)is the core mechanism to achieve physical human–robot interaction,which is an inevitable development trend in robotic.The existing variable stiffness actuators are basically single degree-of-freedom(DOF)rotating joints,which are achieving multi-DOF motion by cascades and resulting in complex robot body structures.In this paper,an integrated 2-DOF actuator with variable stiffness is proposed,which could be used for bionic wrist joints or shoulder joints.The 2-DOF motion is coupling in one universal joint,which is different from the way of single DOF actuators cascade.Based on the 2-DOF orthogonal motion generated by the spherical wrist parallel mechanism,the stiffness could be adjusted by varying the effective length of the springs,which is uniformly distributed in the variable stiffness unit.The variable stiffness principle,the model design,and theoretical analysis of the VSA are discussed in this work.The independence of adjusting the equilibrium position and stiffness of the actuator is validated by experiments.The results show that the measured actuator characteristics are sufficiently matched the theoretical values.In the future,VSA could be used in biped robot or robotic arm,ensuring the safety of human–robot interaction.

Mechanical design,modeling,and identification for a novel antagonistic variable stiffness dexterous finger

This study traces the development of dexterous hand research and proposes a novel antagonistic variable stiffness dexterous finger mechanism to improve the safety of dexterous hand in unpredictable environments,such as unstructured or man-made operational errors through comprehensive consideration of cost,accuracy,manufacturing,and application.Based on the concept of mechanical passive compliance,which is widely implemented in robots for interactions,a finger is dedicated to improving mechanical robustness.The finger mechanism not only achieves passive compliance against physical impacts,but also implements the variable stiffness actuator principle in a compact finger without adding supererogatory actuators.It achieves finger stiffness adjustability according to the biologically inspired stiffness variation principle of discarding some mobilities to adjust stiffness.The mechanical design of the finger and its stiffness adjusting methods are elaborated.The stiffness characteristics of the finger joint and the actuation unit are analyzed.Experimental results of the finger joint stiffness identification and finger impact tests under different finger stiffness presets are provided to verify the validity of the model.Fingers have been experimentally proven to be robust against physical impacts.Moreover,the experimental part verifies that fingers have good power,grasping,and manipulation performance.

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.

Pneumatically Actuated Soft Robotic Arm for Adaptable Grasping

Developing robotic manipulators capable of performing effective physical interac- tion tasks is a challenging topic. In this study, we design a soft robotic arm （SRA） with multiple degrees of freedom inspired by the flexible structures and the unique motion mechanism of the octopus arm. The SRA is fabricated with elastomeric materials, which consists of four series of integrated pneumatic chambers that play similar roles as the muscles in the octopus arm can achieve large bending in various directions with variable stiffness. This SRA displays specified movements via controlling pressure and selecting channels. Moreover, utilizing parallel control, the SRA demonstrates complicated three-dimensional motions. The force response and motion of the SRA are determined both experimentally and computationally. The applications of the present SRA include tightly coiling around the objects because of its large bending deformation （nearly 360°）, grasping multiple objects, and adjusting the grabbing mode in accordance with the shape of objects.