Development of Adaptive Modular Active Leg (AMAL) using bipedal robotics technology
The objective of the work presented here is to develop a low cost active above knee prosthetic device exploiting bipedal robotics technology which will work utilizing the available biological motor control circuit properly integrated with a Central Pattern Generator (CPG) based control scheme. The approach is completely different from the existing Active Prosthetic devices, designed primarily as standalone systems utilizing multiple sensors and embedded rigid control schemes. In this research, first we designed a fuzzy logic based methodology for offering suitable gait pattern for an amputee, followed by formulating a suitable algorithm for designing a CPG, based on Rayleigh's oscillator. An indigenous probe, Humanoid Gait Oscillator Detector (HGOD) has been designed for capturing gait patterns from various individuals of different height, weight and age. These data are used to design a Fuzzy inference system which generates most suitable gait pattern for an amputee. The output of the Fuzzy inference system is used for designing a CPG best suitable for the amputee. We then developed a CPG based control scheme for calculating the damping profile in real time for maneuvering a prosthetic device called AMAL (Adaptive Modular Active Leg) Also a number of simulation results are presented which show the stable behavior of knee and hip angles and determine the stable limit cycles of the network.
Robotics Auton. Syst.