NRI: Collaborative Research: Unified Feedback Control and Mechanical Design for Robotic, Prosthetic, and Exoskeleton Locomotion

NRI：协作研究：机器人、假肢和外骨骼运动的统一反馈控制和机械设计

• 批准号: 1834557
• 负责人: Koushil Sreenath
• 金额: $ 18.21万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1834557&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NRI; Collaborative; Research; Unified; Feedback

There is a pressing need for wearable robots, e.g., prostheses and exoskeletons, which improve the quality of life for individuals with limited mobility - devices that work symbiotically with human users to achieve stable, safe and efficient locomotion. At present, approximately 4.7 million people in the United States would benefit from an active lower-limb exoskeleton due to the effects of stroke, polio, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and cerebral palsy, and by 2050 an estimated 1.5 million people in the United States will be living with a major lower-limb amputation. Yet current wearable robotic devices do not address this growing population's needs since they are bulky, heavy, noisy, and require large batteries for even short duration use, while implementing predominately hierarchical control algorithms. Impeding innovation in this domain is the expensive and slow traditional design-build-test approach that ignores the tight coupling between hardware specifications and control algorithm performance. The vision of this work is to provide a methodology---inspired by advancements in robotic locomotion---that allows lower-limb prostheses and exoskeletons to meet real-world requirements through the co-design of the electromechanical and feedback systems. The transformative nature of this work, therefore, stems from its ability to realize wearable robots that synergize with humans to achieve increased mobility, providing a template for the growing robotic assistive device industry and potentially improving the quality of life of millions. To realize the vision of this work, the overarching research goal is to create a new unified control and design framework that will allow for the efficient and stable locomotion of robots, prostheses, and exoskeletons. A key aspect of this control methodology is the ability to continuously mediate between different objectives enforcing stability and safety in an efficient manner through force-based interactions among (wearable) robotic devices, their environment and the user. The resulting framework will be utilized via control-in-the-loop mechanical design of prostheses and exoskeletons with stringent design requirements, tested experimentally on a novel humanoid robot, and clinically evaluated through human subject trials. This work is, therefore, guided by the following specific goals: (1) develop a unified online optimization-based control framework for (wearable) robotic locomotion that efficiently mediates stability, safety and force constraints, (2) create a feedback loop between formal control synthesis and the mechanical design of wearable robots that satisfy stringent performance requirements, (3) accelerate clinical testing by translating controllers formally and experimentally from bipedal humanoid robots to prostheses and exoskeletons. As a result of these research goals, this work has the potential to create the next generation of robotic systems that enable stable, safe and efficient human mobility.

人们迫切需要可穿戴机器人，例如假肢和外骨骼，以提高行动不便人士的生活质量，这些设备与人类用户共生，以实现稳定、安全和高效的运动。 目前，由于中风、脊髓灰质炎、多发性硬化症、脊髓损伤和脑瘫的影响，美国约有 470 万人将受益于主动下肢外骨骼，到 2050 年，预计将有 150 万人受益。美国将面临严重的下肢截肢。 然而，当前的可穿戴机器人设备并不能满足这一不断增长的人口的需求，因为它们体积大、重、噪音大，并且即使短时间使用也需要大电池，同时主要实现分层控制算法。 阻碍该领域创新的是昂贵且缓慢的传统设计构建测试方法，该方法忽略了硬件规格和控制算法性能之间的紧密耦合。 这项工作的愿景是提供一种受机器人运动进步启发的方法，通过机电和反馈系统的共同设计，使下肢假肢和外骨骼能够满足现实世界的要求。 因此，这项工作的变革性本质在于它能够实现可穿戴机器人，与人类协同提高移动性，为不断发展的机器人辅助设备行业提供模板，并有可能改善数百万人的生活质量。 为了实现这项工作的愿景，总体研究目标是创建一个新的统一控制和设计框架，使机器人、假肢和外骨骼能够高效稳定地运动。 这种控制方法的一个关键方面是能够在不同目标之间持续协调，通过（可穿戴）机器人设备、其环境和用户之间基于力的交互，以有效的方式增强稳定性和安全性。由此产生的框架将通过具有严格设计要求的假肢和外骨骼的环控制机械设计来使用，在新型人形机器人上进行实验测试，并通过人体试验进行临床评估。 因此，这项工作以以下具体目标为指导：（1）为（可穿戴）机器人运动开发一个基于在线优化的统一控制框架，该框架可有效调节稳定性、安全性和力约束，（2）在正式形式之间创建反馈循环满足严格性能要求的可穿戴机器人的控制合成和机械设计，（3）通过将控制器正式和实验地从双足人形机器人转换为假肢和外骨骼，加速临床测试。 由于这些研究目标，这项工作有可能创建下一代机器人系统，实现稳定、安全和高效的人类移动。