Variable Impedance Control for Rehabilitation Robot using Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic

Received: June 18, 2015. Received in revised form: October 17, 2015. Accepted: October 26, 2015. In this study, a novel variable impedance control for a lower-limb rehabilitation robotic system using voltage control strategy is presented. The majority of existing control approaches are based on control torque strategy, which require the knowledge of robot dynamics as well as dynamic of patients. This requires the controller to overcome complex problems such as uncertainties and nonlinearities involved in the dynamic of the system, robot and patients. On the other hand, how impedance parameters must be selected is a serious question in control system design for rehabilitation robots. To resolve these problems this paper, presents a variable impedance control based on the voltage control strategy. In contrast to the usual current-based (torque mode) the use of motor dynamics lees to a computationally faster and more realistic voltage-base controller. The most important advantage of the proposed control strategy is that the nonlinear dynamic of rehabilitation robot is handled as an external load, hence the control law is free from robot dynamic and the impedance controller is computationally simpler, faster and more robust with negligible tracking error. Moreover, variable impedance parameters based on Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic (IT2Fl) is proposed to evaluate impedance parameters. The proposed control is verified by a stability analysis. To illustrate the effectiveness of the control approach, a 1-DOF lower-limb rehabilitation robot is designed. Voltagebased impedance control are simulated through a therapeutic exercise consist of Isometric and Isotonic exercises. Simulation results show that the proposed voltagebased variable impedance control is superior to voltage-based impedance control in therapeutic exercises.