Improving Finite State Impedance Control of Active-Transfemoral Prosthesis Using Dempster-Shafer Based State Transition Rules

摘要

Finite state impedance (FSI) control is a widely used approach to control active-transfemoral prostheses (ATP). Current design of state transition rules depends on hard thresholding of intrinsic mechanical measurements, which cannot cope well with uncertainty related with intra- and inter-subject variations of these intrinsic recordings. In this study, we aimed to generate more robust FSI control of ATP against these variations by using Dempster-Shafer theory (DST)-based transition rules. The FSI control with DST-based rules was implemented on an instrumented ATP, evaluated on five able-bodied subjects and one patient with a unilateral transfemoral amputation. Then the DSP based transition rules were compared to the control with hard threshold (HT)-based transition rules. The results showed that when compared to the hard thresholding approach, the DST yielded enhanced accuracy in state transition timing and reduced control errors when intra- and inter-subject variations were presented. Additionally, the parameters of DST-based rules were uniform for all the subjects tested, allowing for easy and efficient transition rule design and calibration. The out-come of this study can lead to further improvement of robust, practical, and self-contained ATP design, which in turn will advance the motor function of patients with lower limb amputations.