Boosting human force: A robotic enhancement of a human operator's force

For a human operator, lifting and carrying a load can be a hazardous task with significant health-related risks. The collaboration between the human operator and a robotic device can provide an effective solution. This study proposes a control design for the robot such that it merely amplifies the force the human operator applies to the load. The algorithm is of a cyclic nature, where each cycle is subdivided into two stages. The first phase is the estimation of the human force, since the only connection between the robot and the human is via the load. In the second phase, the scaled force is applied to the load. The proposed approach is illustrated by means of simulation results for a two-link robot manipulator. © 2008 IEEE