Control of sit-to-stand exoskeleton with human in the loop.

M. Tech. Electrical engineering.Discusses the process of standing from a chair is the first movement to be affected by physical impairment or ageing. That justified the increase of researches around sit-to-stand movements nowadays.This thesis presents the design of a four links wearable device that can assist disable people to stand from a sitting position. The four links are joined at the ankle, the knee and the HAT (Head, Arm and Trunk) where actuators are mounted. The system is built around three controllers. The Goal Controller drives the links along their reference trajectories, the Stability Controller makes sure that the system does not collapse as it is rising, and the last controller combines the signal from the 2 first ones.The reference trajectories are obtained from data recorded from healthy people performing the movement. The main idea behind the present design is that from seat off, the floor projection of the body centre of pressure is evaluated and compared to the most stable position. The stability controller generates the torque necessary to compensate the deviation, while the third controller adjusts the level of participation of that torque to satisfy both the trajectory and the stability objectives. Similar idea was previously found in Prinz (2010)