ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biosensors and Biomolecular Electronics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1609548
This article is part of the Research TopicBiomechanics, Sensing and Bio-inspired Control in Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics, Volume IIView all 13 articles
Research on Rehabilitation Robot Control Based on Port-Hamiltonian Systems and Fatigue Dissipation Port Compensation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
- 2Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai, Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China
- 3Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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Upper-limb rehabilitation robots have been shown to effectively enhance motor recovery in stroke patients through high-repetition, quantifiable training. However, in active training modes, the nonlinear and time-varying nature of muscle fatigue can lead to control instability and increased risks in physical human-robot interaction, ultimately limiting rehabilitation outcomes. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a novel control strategy within the port-Hamiltonian framework, incorporating a dynamic muscle fatigue model. Surface electromyography (sEMG) signals are used to assess fatigue levels in real time, which are then mapped to time-varying damping components in the robot's joint space. This mapping enables the construction of a port-Hamiltonian system that explicitly accounts for fatigue-related energy dissipation. Building on this model, a hierarchical outer-inner loop control architecture is developed: the outer loop employs admittance control to generate compliant reference trajectories based on interaction forces, while the inner loop utilizes energy shaping and damping injection to ensure accurate trajectory tracking and dynamic compensation for fatigue-induced damping. Theoretical analysis confirms that the proposed method preserves closed-loop passivity and guarantees system stability. Experimental validation further demonstrates that, compared to fixed damping parameters, the method proposed in this paper, through fatigue-dissipative port dynamic compensation, reduces muscle fatigue accumulation by 45% and increases training duration by 40%, offering a promising solution for enhancing the safety and physiological adaptability of rehabilitation training.
Keywords: Upper-limb rehabilitation robot, Muscle fatigue modeling, Port-Hamiltonian system, passivity-based control, Human-robot interaction stability
Received: 10 Apr 2025; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LI, Chen, Li, Yan, Li, Feng, Zhu and Shao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jian Li, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
Liwei Shao, Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai, Zhuhai, 519088, Guangdong Province, China
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