In vitro spine testing using a robot-based testing system: Comparison of displacement control and “hybrid control”

The hybrid control algorithm enabled the robotics-based spine testing system to apply pure moments to an FSU (in flexion/extension, lateral bending, or axial rotation) in an unconstrained manner through active control of secondary translational/rotational degrees-of-freedom-successfully minimizing coupled forces/moments. The characteristic nonlinear S-shaped curves of the primary moment-rotation responses were consistent with previous reports of the FSU having a region of low stiffness (neutral zone) bounded by regions of increasing stiffness (elastic zone). Direct comparison of “displacement control” and “hybrid control” showed that hybrid control was able to actively minimize off-axis forces and resulted in larger neutral zone and range of motion.