Matlab/SimMechanics Based Control of Four-Bar Passive Lower-Body Mechanism for Rehabilitation

Publication date: Available online 30 April 2016 Source:Perspectives in Science Author(s): Ashish Singla, Gurminder Singh, Gurvinder Singh Virk In recent times, use of wearable devices are becoming popular for providing precise ways of rehabilitation. The focus of this paper is to propose a passive lower body mechanism using a four-bar linkage, which can be actuated via the hip joint to move the other two joints at knee and ankle as well. Simulations are performed here by considering an average male human (height six feet) by modeling the gait cycle in CAD software and executing the control strategy in the SimMechanics, which provides a convenient way to study without use of detailed computational mathematics. The study of the controller aspects of the passive mechanism is presented with both PD and PID controllers with auto- and manual-tuned gains. Significant reduction in actuator torques are observed with the manually-tuned PID controller over automatically-tuned PID controller with marginal degradation in the overshoot and settling time.
Source: Perspectives in Science - Category: Science Source Type: research