NRI: Collaborative Research: Unified Feedback Control and Mechanical Design for Robotic, Prosthetic, and Exoskeleton Locomotion

对可穿戴机器人的迫切需求，例如假肢和外骨骼，可以改善行动能力有限的个人的生活质量-与人类用户共生工作的设备，以实现稳定、安全和高效的运动。目前，由于中风、小儿麻痹症、多发性硬化症、脊髓损伤和脑瘫的影响，美国约有470万人将受益于活跃的下肢外骨骼，到2050年，美国估计将有150万人接受严重的下肢截肢。然而，目前的可穿戴机器人设备无法满足这一日益增长的人口的需求，因为它们体积大、重量重、噪音大，甚至在短时间内使用都需要大电池，同时实施的主要是分级控制算法。阻碍这一领域创新的是昂贵且缓慢的传统设计-构建-测试方法，该方法忽略了硬件规范和控制算法性能之间的紧密耦合。这项工作的愿景是提供一种方法学-受机器人运动方面的进步的启发-通过机电和反馈系统的联合设计，允许下肢假肢和外骨骼满足现实世界的要求。因此，这项工作的变革性源于它实现了可穿戴机器人的能力，这种机器人可以与人类协同工作，实现更高的移动性，为不断增长的机器人辅助设备行业提供了一个模板，并有可能提高数百万人的生活质量。为了实现这项工作的愿景，总体研究目标是创建一个新的统一控制和设计框架，使机器人、假肢和外骨骼能够高效和稳定地运动。这种控制方法的一个关键方面是能够通过(可穿戴的)机器人设备、其环境和用户之间基于力的交互，有效地在不同目标之间进行调解，以确保稳定性和安全性。所产生的框架将用于具有严格设计要求的假肢和外骨骼的环路控制机械设计，在新型类人机器人上进行实验测试，并通过人类受试者试验进行临床评估。因此，这项工作以以下具体目标为指导：(1)开发一个统一的基于在线优化的(可穿戴)机器人运动控制框架，有效地协调稳定性、安全性和力约束；(2)在形式控制综合和满足严格性能要求的可穿戴机器人的机械设计之间建立反馈回路；(3)通过正式和实验地将控制器从双足仿人机器人转换为假肢和外骨骼来加速临床测试。作为这些研究目标的结果，这项工作有可能创造出下一代机器人系统，使人类能够稳定、安全和高效地移动。

There is a pressing need for wearable robots, e.g., prostheses and exoskeletons, which improve the quality of life for individuals with limited mobility - devices that work symbiotically with human users to achieve stable, safe and efficient locomotion. At present, approximately 4.7 million people in the United States would benefit from an active lower-limb exoskeleton due to the effects of stroke, polio, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and cerebral palsy, and by 2050 an estimated 1.5 million people in the United States will be living with a major lower-limb amputation. Yet current wearable robotic devices do not address this growing population's needs since they are bulky, heavy, noisy, and require large batteries for even short duration use, while implementing predominately hierarchical control algorithms. Impeding innovation in this domain is the expensive and slow traditional design-build-test approach that ignores the tight coupling between hardware specifications and control algorithm performance. The vision of this work is to provide a methodology---inspired by advancements in robotic locomotion---that allows lower-limb prostheses and exoskeletons to meet real-world requirements through the co-design of the electromechanical and feedback systems. The transformative nature of this work, therefore, stems from its ability to realize wearable robots that synergize with humans to achieve increased mobility, providing a template for the growing robotic assistive device industry and potentially improving the quality of life of millions. To realize the vision of this work, the overarching research goal is to create a new unified control and design framework that will allow for the efficient and stable locomotion of robots, prostheses, and exoskeletons. A key aspect of this control methodology is the ability to continuously mediate between different objectives enforcing stability and safety in an efficient manner through force-based interactions among (wearable) robotic devices, their environment and the user. The resulting framework will be utilized via control-in-the-loop mechanical design of prostheses and exoskeletons with stringent design requirements, tested experimentally on a novel humanoid robot, and clinically evaluated through human subject trials. This work is, therefore, guided by the following specific goals: (1) develop a unified online optimization-based control framework for (wearable) robotic locomotion that efficiently mediates stability, safety and force constraints, (2) create a feedback loop between formal control synthesis and the mechanical design of wearable robots that satisfy stringent performance requirements, (3) accelerate clinical testing by translating controllers formally and experimentally from bipedal humanoid robots to prostheses and exoskeletons. As a result of these research goals, this work has the potential to create the next generation of robotic systems that enable stable, safe and efficient human mobility.