Concerted Control for Orchestrating Human and Assistive Devices
摘要
The human musculoskeletal system can be considered as a set of different instruments in an orchestra while the local reflex control represents the players, but who is the conductor in this concert? With this analogy, a conductor should send a signal that is used by different controllers to sync them to generate a harmonic movement. Based on our previous research and inspired by biomechanical studies, the ground reaction force can be used as an informative signal to support the control of different elements, e.g., muscles, joints, or locomotor subfunctions. Our recent simulations demonstrated the ability of this approach to generate human-like walking at different speeds, which is also robust against perturbations. This model’s predictive capability for human-like locomotion indicates that the same principle could synchronize human bodies with assistive devices, such as exoskeletons. Our experimental results with the BATEX exosuit support this hypothesis, showing reduced metabolic costs (9%) while increasing the preferred walking speed (14%). This suggests that the GRF, acting as the conductor, can effectively coordinate the concert of human and robotic systems, enhancing agility and efficiency.