Organization of walking of the lower-extremity exoskeleton using the control of the supporting foot

Abstract

Introduction. The development of robotics in many advanced countries has raised various industries to a high level. The demand for robots increases the share of their use in production tasks, mainly in the motor-vehicle and electronics industries. Advanced robotics can increase productivity in many industries by 30%, while reducing labor costs. Automation of technological processes of electronics production has a positive impact on the use of robots. Robots are used in construction, logistics, oil and gas, aerospace, plant engineering and construction, mining, healthcare, etc. The authors consider robots from the point of view of their application in medicine for the rehabilitation of musculoskeletal patients. This paper describes the mechanisms for controlling the feet and the center of mass of a humanoid robot. Materials and Methods. The authors chose the simplest algorithm for searching for the law of motion control of a humanoid robot. The robot movement was presented as a reverse pendulum. Using the large kinematic redundancy of walking robots, we have developed a way to control the robot in such a way as to bring the dynamics of its movement to the reverse pendulum as close as possible. At the same time, the problem of determining the generalized coordinates is considered, at which a given position and orientation of the transferred foot and a given position of the projection of the center of mass (CM) of the robot onto the reference surface are provided. Results. The authors have developed a digitalized automatic control scheme for the movement of the feet and the center of mass of the human exoskeleton, which will largely reduce the load on a sick person. Discussion and Conclusions. When discussing the results, comparing the data of the tables obtained during the calculation, the following conclusion was made. The scheme for controlling the feet movement of a human exoskeleton developed by the authors is most effective when designing an automatic scheme for controlling the movement of the feet and the center of mass of a human exoskeleton using digital technology, which will largely reduce the load on a sick person.