Creating the brain and interacting with the brain: an integrated approach to understanding the brain

In the past two decades, brain science and robotics have made gigantic advances in their own fields, and their interactions have generated several interdisciplinary research fields. First, in the ‘understanding the brain by creating the brain’ approach, computational neuroscience models have been applied to many robotics problems. Second, such brain-motivated fields as cognitive robotics and developmental robotics have emerged as interdisciplinary areas among robotics, neuroscience and cognitive science with special emphasis on humanoid robots. Third, in brain–machine interface research, a brain and a robot are mutually connected within a closed loop. In this paper, we review the theoretical backgrounds of these three interdisciplinary fields and their recent progress. Then, we introduce recent efforts to reintegrate these research fields into a coherent perspective and propose a new direction that integrates brain science and robotics where the decoding of information from the brain, robot control based on the decoded information and multimodal feedback to the brain from the robot are carried out in real time and in a closed loop.     

Ergonomic contribution of ABLE exoskeleton in automotive industry

In PSA Peugeot Citroen factories, high precision requirements of workstations make them being manual. One of the main goal of the car manufacturer is to minimize the pain of workers while maintaining high efficiency of production lines. Consequently, assisting operators with an exoskeleton is a potential solution for improving ergonomics of painful workstations while respecting industrial constraints. To determine ergonomic performances of an exoskeleton, human joint angles and torques, ground reaction forces, and duration of operations are analysed for eight subjects performing a representative screwing task. Experiments were performed using ABLE upper-limb exoskeleton, developed by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), which has the functionality to compensate arm and tools loads. Results show a clear reduction of the sum of the joints torques, up to 38.9%, given by ABLE supply and invite to make concrete the use of exoskeletons in car assembly lines.     

被动踝足外骨骼对平地行走时运动表现的影响

被动踝关节外骨骼(unpowered-ankle exoskeleton)可实现人体步态行走良好辅助作用,但对其助行增强效果研究多局限于跑步机行走范式,现少有在平地行走下穿戴外骨骼对穿戴者运动生物力学影响的研究。本研究设计组装了一款低成本模块化的被动踝关节外骨骼,首次研究了平地行走下穿戴被动踝关节外骨骼对健康年轻穿戴者肌肉激活与运动表现的影响。实验招募5名穿戴者,在无外骨骼、仅穿戴外骨骼框架和穿戴外骨骼3种实验条件下完成直线行走任务,过程中同步采集人体下肢主要肌群的肌电和关节运动轨迹。提取了肌电激活特征和关节角度特征,采用双因素方差分析方法揭示了不同外骨骼穿戴状态对相关特征的影响。结果表明,外骨骼框架会对人体提供支撑,降低站立阶段腓肠肌内侧肌肉激活。而穿戴外骨骼在站立阶段使腓肠肌内侧的平均肌肉激活显著降低20%,也显著降低了踝关节的峰值力矩及功率。外骨骼会使髋膝关节的运动学和动力学表现发生变化,这可能与下肢关节间的能量交换有关。因此,被动踝关节外骨骼可在平地行走下对踝关节实现支撑相和推离阶段有效辅助,但穿戴者同时也会适应外骨骼穿戴而改变其步态。     

基于外骨骼的数据手套设计及控制研究

针对可穿戴式外骨骼机器人上的装备控制,设计了一种基于外骨骼的数据手套,该外骨骼数据手套的功能为通过手势变换输入信号控制外骨骼上的装备运作。外骨骼数据手套的控制方法为通过不同手指组合绷直带动外骨骼骨架触碰到不同的开关,使单片机采集到不同的信号来调用所需功能。这种控制方式相比于对比手势模型类型的数据手套,控制较简单、成本更低廉。同时,利用解剖学对输入指令的手指进行筛选来选出灵活度较高的手指,通过机器人学D-H法对手指机械骨架进行运动学正解分析,并使用ADAMS软件做运动学仿真帮助尺寸设计。最后基于SoildWorks软件对外骨骼数据手套进行了建模以及实物实验,验证了所提出的控制方式的正确性与合理性。     

偏瘫患者辅助下肢外骨骼设计与仿真分析

针对偏瘫患者外骨骼康复机器人降低外骨骼质量的要求,设计了一种辅助下肢外骨骼机器人,采用柔索驱动的膝关节,具有结构简单,质量轻的特点。同时利用ADAMS建立了外骨骼关节柔索驱动的动力学模型,绳索模块建立了柔索驱动模型,通过Ariel生物运动分析软件,采集髋、膝、踝关节运动数据,运用Spline函数进行了仿真分析。经过仿真分析柔索驱动在上台阶运动过程中的不同拉簧预紧力和拉簧刚度下传动特性和驱动力矩,为进一步研究设计下肢外骨骼提供依据。     

Simultaneous bipedal locomotion based on haptics for teleoperation

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a novel, simultaneous bipedal locomotion method using haptics for remote operation of biped robots. In general, traditional biped walking methods require very high computational power and advanced controllers to perform the required task. However, in this proposed method, a master exoskeleton attached to the human’s lower body is used to obtain the trajectory and haptic information to generate the trajectory of the slave biped robot in real time. Lateral motion of the center of mass of the biped is constrained in this experiment. Also, it is considered that no communication delay is presented in between the two systems in this experiment, and they are not discussed in this paper. Since a direct motion transmission is used in the proposed method, this method is quite straight forward and a simultaneous walking can be realized at the same time with high performance. Also, it does not require an exact dynamic model of the biped or specific method to plan the trajectory. The gait pattern of the biped is directly determined by that of the human. Also, the operator can feel the remote environment through the exoskeleton robot. Results obtained from the experiments validate the proposed method.     

基于耦合的Vitual Lab Motion & AMESim的下肢外骨骼机电液系统建模及仿真分析

利用Virtual Lab Motion对下肢外骨骼进行了结构建模。依据现有的临床步态分析数据——关节角度随时间的变化关系,通过运动学分析逆向得出所设计系统各个液压缸的理想控制曲线,即液压缸位移随时间的变化关系。依据仿真得到的力臂及液压缸速度可对电液系统的压力和流量进行估算,利用Virtual Lab Motion与AMESim的耦合仿真验证了系统的合理性。     

基于机器学习的人体步态检测智能识别算法研究

为实现快速步态状态判断,以更好地对下肢外骨骼进行高精度的步态识别和控制,进行了基于可穿戴惯性测量装置检测人体姿态变化的算法研究.通过对人体下肢的跌倒、转弯、蹲坐与起立等非周期性步态变化活动进行测算试验,获得了受试者实验过程中身体角度、下肢关节角速度和加速度变化等数据,随后应用随机森林等4种机器学习经典分类算法对受试者进...     

体感控制的上肢外骨骼镜像康复机器人系统

为辅助患肢进行自主康复训练,研制了一种体感控制的上肢外骨骼镜像康复机器人系统。设计了可穿戴式三自由度上肢康复机械臂,利用Kinect传感器提取人体6个骨骼关节点数据,计算所需控制参数,将健肢的体势动作转化为控制信号,控制机械臂带动患肢做镜像或同步运动康复训练。搭建了上肢外骨骼康复机器人系统实验平台,分别进行了单关节镜像控制和多关节联动同步控制穿戴实验,系统具有良好的体感控制随动性能,能满足上肢康复训练的要求。     

气动人工肌肉外骨骼机器人位置跟踪控制

针对以气动人工肌肉作为关节驱动器的外骨骼机器人关节位置跟踪控制问题进行了研究。首先,在动力学模型的基础上,设计了上层控制器,并结合自适应控制和滑模控制方法降低了动力学参数不准确和扰动项未知对外骨骼机器人的影响;其次,基于无模型方法设计了底层关节力矩控制器,调整外骨骼机器人的关节力矩;最后,针对上述控制方案设计仿真实验与外骨骼机器人的穿戴实验。结果表明,该控制方法对气动人工肌肉外骨骼机器人的关节位置跟踪控制是有效的。