An Interactive Control Strategy Based on A Wheelchair Exoskeleton

In order to solve the problem of home-based rehabilitation for the elderly with severe stroke and lower limb movement disorders, an adaptive interaction force-based assist-as-needed (AIFAAN) control strategy is proposed, where the problem of force trajectory tracking is considered. The structure of a novel wheelchair exoskeleton is described briefly, and the mechanical analysis is presented firstly. Then, the core idea of the AIFAAN control strategy is described in detail, where the force threshold profile is introduced, and some numerical examples are given based on the proposed wheelchair exoskeleton. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed control strategy and some discussions are presented based on the experiment results performed on the wheelchair exoskeleton. The results show that the proposed interactive control strategy is easy to implement in applications, with excellent stability and adaptability to different environments, and it can be better applied to the rehabilitation needs of elderly patients with lower limb movement disorders at home.