A SMC-based control framework for control of ankle movement using multielectrode intraspinal micro stimulation

This paper presents a modular control framework for control of the ankle movement using intraspinal microstimulation. The control strategy is based on sliding mode control (SMC). The major advantage of sliding-mode controller is its insensitivity to parameter variations and external load disturbance. The structure of the control framework is modular. Two different control frameworks were proposed. In the first framework, for each motor pool, an independent SMC was designed and the output of the controller was delivered into each electrode implanted into the motor pool. In the second framework, for each electrode, an independent SMC was designed. The results of experiments on two rats show that a good tracking performance can be obtained using the proposed method. The average of tracking errors obtained over two rats are 8.2% and 10.3% using the first control framework and second framework respectively.