A generalized control framework of assistive controllers for lower limb exoskeletons

A number of control methodologies have been studied for assistive robotic technologies. Since the human motions in a daily life consist of multiple phases, such as walking, sitting and standing, controllers for assistive robots are required to be able to cope with different motion phases. For this reason, hybrid control which is able to occasionally switch control algorithms according to the motion phases has been preferred in the assistive robots, in particular wearable robots. In this paper, a generalized control framework is proposed as a fundamental framework for the hybrid assistive control and its stability is analyzed using the framework. The proposed control framework is implemented into a lower-limb exoskeleton robot and its effectiveness is verified thorough experiments.