Design and control of an active knee orthosis driven by a rotary Series Elastic Actuator

Active orthosis is one of the main research topics in the field of motor recovery. This paper deals with the design and control of an active knee orthosis driven by a customized rotary Series Elastic Actuator (SEA). The proposed actuator includes a DC motor, a worm gear and a customized torsion spring. Since the elastic element is the most important component in SEA design, a finite element analysis of the spring is performed to meet the specific requirements for knee assistance. Torque and impedance control are implemented to ensure secure interaction with the patient and to enable new strategies for rehabilitation. The torque controller, cascaded with an inner motor velocity control loop, is based on H∞ criterion to achieve good system performance with relation to parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. The impedance control is implemented using a PD position controller in cascade with the torque controller, where the outer position controller determines the desired torque according to position and velocity errors and impedance parameters. A variable impedance control strategy is then implemented to show the possibility to regulate the impedance of the knee joint during walking. Experiments considering the interaction between the subject and the active orthosis are performed to evaluate the proposed controllers.