Title: Adaptive control strategy with parameter optimisation for omni-directional walker

Authors: Renpeng Tan; Shuoyu Wang; Yinlai Jiang; Kenji Ishida; Masakatsu G. Fujie

Addresses: Department of Intelligent Mechanical Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Miyanokuchi, Tosayamada, Kami, Kochi 782-8502, Japan. ' School of Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Miyanokuchi, Tosayamada, Kami, Kochi 782-8502, Japan. ' School of Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Miyanokuchi, Tosayamada, Kami, Kochi 782-8502, Japan. ' Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Kochi University, 2-5-1 Akebono-cho, Kochi 780-8520, Japan. ' Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, Waseda University, 59-309, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjyuku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan

Abstract: In order to support people with walking disabilities to perform walking rehabilitation, an omni-directional walker (ODW) has been developed. Walking training programmes are stored in the walker so that rehabilitation can be carried out without a physical therapist. During walking training the forces imposed by the user's arms to the armrest of the ODW decreased the path tracking accuracy. In a previous study, to address the issue, an adaptive control algorithm was developed to deal with the centre of gravity shift and the load changes caused by the users. However, the control parameters in the non-linear adaptive control law were manually adjusted. In this paper, an adaptive control strategy with automatic parameter adjustment by genetic algorithm is proposed. Simulations are presented to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Keywords: parameter optimisation; genetic algorithms; adaptive control; omnidirectional walker; ODW; automation; walking disabilities; disabled people; walking training programmes; rehabilitation; path tracking; tracking accuracy; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMA.2011.045249

International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2011 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.172 - 180

Received: 25 Feb 2011
Accepted: 11 May 2011

Published online: 26 Mar 2015 *

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