Simulation of human walking with powered orthosis for keeping balance of upper body

To design a powered assistive orthosis for human walking, we have simulated walking motion with an orthosis. The model dynamics of the coupled human-orthosis is represented by a 10-rigid-link system. In this model there exist rotational joints at lumbar, both thighs and both legs, and these joints are controlled by the system which imitates neuronal system in spinal cord of mammals. The CPG controller consists of 14 oscillators which have the sensory feedbacks and generates the joint torques to move the skeletal model of human. The parameters of the oscillators and the connecting gains in the network are optimized by using a genetic algorithm. We have achieved the successful simulation of stable walking against disturbances with this model. It is shown that the simulation results are useful for the design of assistive orthosis of walking.