Affiliations: [a] Institute of Rehabilitation Engineering and Technology, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China | [b] School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Tairen Sun, Institute of Rehabilitation Engineering and Technology, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China. E-mail: suntren@gmail.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Human gait involves activities in nervous and musculoskeletal dynamics to modulate joint torques with time continuously for adapting to varieties of walking conditions. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this paper is to estimate the joint torques of lower limbs in human gait based on Gaussian process. METHOD: The potential uses of this study include optimization of exoskeleton assistance, control of the active prostheses, and modulating the joint torque for human-like robots. To achieve this, Gaussian process (GP) based data fusion algorithm is established with joint angles as the inputs. RESULTS: The statistic nature of the proposed model can explore the correlations between joint angles and joint torques, and enable accurate joint-torque estimations. Experiments were conducted for 5 subjects at three walking speed (0.8 m/s, 1.2 m/s, 1.6 m/s). CONCLUSION: The results show that it is possible to estimate the joint torques at different scenarios.
Keywords: GP, human gait, joint torque, prostheses, robots, mechanics
