Smart Exercise Adaptive Control of a Three Degree of Freedom Upper-limb Manipulator Robot

Abstract

An adaptive velocity field controller for robotic manipulators is proposed in this thesis. The control objective is to cause the user to exercise in a manner that optimizes a criterion related to the user’s mechanical power. The control structure allows for passive user-manipulator physical interaction while the adaptive algorithm identifies the user’s biomechanical characteristics as a linear Hill based force-velocity curve defined at each pose of a repetitive exercise motion i.e. a Hill surface. The study of such a surface allows for the characterization of maximal effort exercise tasks and subsequently the control of exercises that is unique to each user. This allows for the intelligent characterization of a user’s abilities such that repetitive exercises defined by velocity fields can be safely performed. Such a study involving a 3DOF manipulator operating in full 3D has not been conducted in literature to the best of author’s knowledge. The proposed control structure is verified through experimentation on a unimanual setup of the BURT rehabilitation manipulator system involving a single user. The manipulator system includes friction, actuator/sensor noise, and unmodelled dynamics.